According to the Independent on December 5, the Spanish economy may be dangerously close to meltdown but one area at least - prostitution - appears to be doing very nicely。
Prostitution is so popular in Spain that a UN study reports that 39 percent of all Spanish men have used a prostitute's service at least once. A Spanish Health Ministry survey in 2009 put the percentage of one-time prostitute users at 32 percent: lower than the UN figure, perhaps, but far higher than the 14 percent in liberal-minded Holland, or in UK, where the figure is reported to oscillate between 5 and 10 percent。
To meet this vast demand, an estimated 300,000 prostitutes are working in Spain - everywhere from clubs in town centers to lonely country's roadside bars。
As the clubs get larger, the clients get younger. According to studies carried out for the Spanish Association for the Social Reintegration of Female Prostitutes (Apramp)， back in 1998 the typical client was a 40-year-old married male. By 2005, however, the average age had dropped to 30 - and it appears to be getting lower。
Between January and April of this year, the authorities identified 493 cases of women sold into sexual slavery. Marta Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the Madrid-based NGO Proyecto Esperanza, "Clients don't realize that many of these women could be victims of trafficking. They don't realize that all it takes is a death threat to their families back in Nigeria or Brazil, and the woman is already being coerced into prostitution."