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Trafficking · Learn

What’s true about trafficking.

Ten minutes. Nine facts, five words to keep apart, and the places where the best sources disagree. Most of what circulates about trafficking is one organisation’s caseload dressed as a global number; here’s how to tell the difference.

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Nine facts

  1. 49.6 million people were in modern slavery on any given day in 2021. 27.6 million in forced labour, 22 million in forced marriage. It’s a modelled estimate from household surveys, and it’s the latest there is.1
  2. Forced labour has overtaken sexual exploitation among victims the authorities find. Worldwide in 2022: 42% forced labour, 36% sexual exploitation, 8% forced crime. Of the 27.6 million in forced labour, 6.3 million were in forced commercial sexual exploitation.12
  3. Authorities detected 74,785 victims in 2022. The estimate is 27.6 million. Detection reaches a fraction of one percent (detected victims of all kinds, against the forced-labour estimate; the two counts use different years and definitions, and the gap survives either way). Every count you see is of the found, not the total.2
  4. Children are 38% of detected victims, and that number rose 31% between 2019 and 2022. Girls 22%, boys 16%.2
  5. Most victims are female, but not “overwhelmingly”. 61% of detected victims are women and girls. In forced commercial sexual exploitation it’s about four in five. Male victims are under-identified, the US hotline says.123
  6. Most traffickers are men. Women were 28% of those convicted worldwide. The “nearly 40% women” figure that circulates is one charity’s 2025 arrests: 100 of 262.24
  7. The US hotline logged 52,664 contacts and identified 15,085 cases in 2025, in every state. 606 in New York. The hotline says its numbers measure calls, not how common trafficking is. More of its cases are sex trafficking (6,201) than labour (2,400), the reverse of the global picture.3
  8. A fast-rising form is forced crime: people trafficked into scam compounds. Hundreds of thousands of people from at least 80 countries have been recruited, often with fake job offers. Americans lost at least $18.2 billion to Southeast Asia-based scam operations in 2025.5
  9. Twelve governments are named as traffickers themselves. The 2026 US report lists 12 countries with state policies or patterns of trafficking, down from 13 in 2025. Hotline operations changed hands in late 2025 (Compass Connections began running it in September; Polaris announced the full handover on 8 December); the number didn’t.56

Five words to keep apart

Trafficking
Recruiting, moving or holding a person for exploitation by force, fraud or coercion. No border needs crossing. Any minor in commercial sex is a trafficking victim by US law, with no coercion needed.9
Modern slavery
The wider umbrella: forced labour plus forced marriage. The 49.6 million is modern slavery. Forced marriage counts, but isn’t all trafficking.
Smuggling
Paying to be moved across a border. A crime against the border, agreed to by the person. It can turn into trafficking; it isn’t the same thing.
Detected vs estimated
Detected: cases the authorities recorded (74,785). Estimated: a model of the whole (27.6 million). Percentages like “38% children” describe the detected. Nobody knows the shape of the undetected.
Signals vs cases vs victims
The hotline’s three counts. A signal is a contact; a case is a situation with enough detail; victims are the people in it. 52,664 · 15,085 · 21,457 in 2025.

Where the sources disagree

Sex or labour? Globally, labour (UN, 42% to 36%). In US hotline data, sex (6,201 to 2,400). Both are real. The hotline’s own myths page says experts believe labour trafficking is more common worldwide.23

How much recruitment is online. No global figure exists. “Two-thirds of cases involved online recruitment” is The Exodus Road describing its own 2025 cases, and even their infographic words it differently. Their ranked list puts false job offers first. Reports of online child sex trafficking to NCMEC rose 323% in 2025, but NCMEC attributes the rise to a 2024 law that made platforms report, which it says is exposing a crime that was already there.47

Whether the big anti-trafficking charities work. They publish their own results and score well on financial accountability. A review of the field found evaluations measure activity, not outcomes. No independent impact evaluation of the best-known rescue organisations turned up in our check. That’s why the Do page puts recovery first.8

Whether a tip to the hotline helps. In the year to September 2025, 3,643 of the 13,623 potential situations the hotline identified were reported to law enforcement. The federal evaluation says that once a report is made, the hotline “has no influence on whether law enforcement takes additional action”. In 2025, 10,971 of its 52,664 contacts, about a fifth, came from victims or survivors. Its value is as a service for the person, which is how the Do page uses it; as a tip line it’s weak.310

Whether “end demand” laws work. Contested, and not reviewed here. Say so when it comes up.

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Sources

  1. ILO, Walk Free and IOM, Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, September 2022 (2021 data). primary
  2. UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2024, December 2024 (2022 data): 74,785 detected victims; 38% children; forced labour 42%, sexual exploitation 36%; women 28% of those convicted. primary
  3. National Human Trafficking Hotline, Statistics (2025 data) and Myths and facts, read 5 Nov 2026. primary
  4. The Exodus Road, 2025 Human Trafficking Report and its PDF, January 2026. Its own 2025 cases: teams in five countries (the web page adds a sixth, undisclosed), with cases in 16 countries. charity’s own figures
  5. US State Department, 2026 Trafficking in Persons Report, 8 October 2026, and 2025 report, 29 September 2025. primary
  6. Polaris, transfer of hotline operations to Compass Connections, 8 December 2025; the hotline’s FAQ (Compass Connections began operating it in September 2025) and contact page, read 5 Nov 2026. primary
  7. NCMEC, CyberTipline data, 2025, read 5 Nov 2026 primary; the REPORT Act, S.474, signed 7 May 2024 primary.
  8. Bryant and Landman, Journal of Human Trafficking, 2020 research; Charity Navigator profiles for The Exodus Road and IJM, read 5 Nov 2026 evaluator.
  9. HHS Office on Trafficking in Persons, hotline data, fiscal year 2025 primary; HHS OPRE, evaluation of the National Human Trafficking Hotline, December 2023 primary.
  10. 22 U.S.C. §7102(11)(A): “severe forms of trafficking in persons” include sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion, “or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age”. primary
Contest a fact, suggest something, or tell us what’s broken

If someone is in danger right now, don’t use this form. Call your local emergency number (911 in the US). For trafficking: 1-888-373-7888, or text 233733.

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No name, no account. Your note goes into the site’s private records, nothing about your browser or connection is stored with it, and the email box is the only way we’d know who you are. The weekly review reads every note, re-reads the original source, and fixes the page if it should. A contested fact and its outcome are listed on Contested, in the review’s words, never yours.

No tracking on any link.Ticks stay on this device.Facts checked 5–6 Nov 2026.What changedContested