Is prostitution legal in New Zealand?
Legal & regulated
Prostitution and related activities are legal under the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act with mandatory condom use.
New Zealand is one of 73 countries classified “Legal & regulated” for sex work — 33% of the 219 with data. (Also searched as prostitution.)
Source
- Taken from
- Wikipedia: Prostitution in Oceania
- Last checked
- 7 July 2026
- How it was classified
- Classified by a language model from the source text, then checked against hand-verified reference countries.
Nearby countries
- Norfolk Island
- Legal & regulated Prostitution is legal and regulated with brothels required to be registered and soliciting restricted near schools and churches.
- New Caledonia
- Buying illegal (Nordic model) Purchasing sex is criminalized while selling sex remains legal, following the French Law of June 2016.
- Tonga
- Legal & regulated Prostitution is legal in Tonga, though related activities like soliciting and brothel keeping are forbidden.
- Fiji
- Legal & regulated Prostitution is legal but brothel keeping, procuring, and buying or selling sex in public are illegal under the Crimes Decree 2009.
- Vanuatu
- Illegal Prostitution is illegal in Vanuatu but common, especially in the capital Port Vila.
- Niue
- Illegal Being a prostitute or keeper of a brothel is illegal in Niue.
Other laws in New Zealand
- Same-Sex Marriage
- Marriage legal
- Same-Sex Activity
- Legal
- Age of Consent
- 16–17
- Divorce
- Heavily restricted
- Non-Binary Recognition
- Recognized
- Same-Sex Adoption
- Joint adoption legal
- Incest Laws
- Criminal offense
- Marriage Age
- 18+
A visual reference compiled from Wikipedia’s law-by-country articles, not legal advice. Laws change and summaries simplify — check a primary source before relying on anything here.