This study of 6,048 Swedish men (ages 16-84 years) used a randomized population-based survey to estimate prevalence of sex buying in Sweden and to determine factors associated with having paid for sex. The study reported the following:

• 9.5% of Swedish men reported ever having paid for sex in their lifetimes. Broken down by age groups, 4.8% of men ages 16-29, 9.9% of men ages 30-44, 11% of men ages 45-64, and 11.4% of men ages 65-84 had ever paid for sex. Only 0.4% of women had ever purchased sex, revealing that the purchase of sex in Sweden is overwhelmingly a male activity.
  • In comparison, a U.S. study reported that 4% of the adult male population had purchased sex within the past three years (unfortunately, a lifetime rate of male sex buying behavior was not provided).¹ Other research based on a large convenience sample has found that 20% of U.S. males have purchased sex at least once in their lifetimes.²
• This study found no association between sex buying and education level.
• Men with the lowest income level (percentile 1-20) showed increased risk of buying sex compared to men with the highest income level (percentile 81-100); 12% of men with the lowest income level had ever paid for sex, compared to 7.6% of men with the highest income level. This finding conflicts with previous research (Priebe & Svedin, 2011,³ Milrod & Monto, 2017⁴) which found that sex buyers were more likely to have high incomes. The reasons for this may relate to differences in the participants of the different studies. For instance, Priebe & Svedin’s study utilized an online panel which in Sweden tend to be disproportionately represented by individuals with higher incomes, while the sample used by Deogan et al. (2020) is likely to represent the full spectrum of the population.
• The odds of ever having paid for sex were 1.7 times more likely for men who were dissatisfied with their sex life, 2.8 times more likely for men who reported having less sex than they would like to, and 5 times more likely for men who had ever looked for or met sex partners online.
• Men who were frequent pornography users, characterized as watching pornography “daily or almost daily” or “3-5 times a week,” were 3 times more likely to have ever paid for sex.

Poor sex life satisfaction, high online sexual activity, and frequent pornography use were all significantly associated with sex buying behaviors. This study shows the correlation of these factors in driving demand. Men who had less sex than they would like to, which included lacking a sex partner, wanting more sexual partners, not having sex often enough, and/or not having sex in the way they would like to, were more likely to purchase sex than those who were satisfied with their sex life. Results also revealed that sex buyers used the Internet/mobile apps for sexual activity more than men who do not buy sex.