Is prostitution legal in Sweden?
Buying illegal (Nordic model)
Sweden criminalizes paying for sex but not selling, implementing the Nordic model in 1999.
Sweden is one of 8 countries classified “Buying illegal (Nordic model)” for sex work — 4% of the 219 with data. (Also searched as prostitution.)
Source
- Taken from
- Wikipedia: Prostitution in Europe
- 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
- Norway
- Buying illegal (Nordic model) Norway criminalizes buying sex but not selling, following the Nordic model implemented in 2009.
- Finland
- Decriminalized / unregulated Prostitution is legal but organized prostitution, brothels, and pimping are illegal, with buying sex linked to human trafficking criminalized since 2006.
- Estonia
- Decriminalized / unregulated Prostitution is legal but organized prostitution is illegal, with no formal criminalization or legalization since independence.
- Denmark
- Decriminalized / unregulated Prostitution was partly decriminalized in 1999, with third-party activities like brothel administration remaining illegal.
- Latvia
- Legal & regulated Prostitution is legal and regulated in Latvia with mandatory registration and health checks for sex workers.
- Lithuania
- Illegal Prostitution is illegal in Lithuania but commonly practiced with weak law enforcement and connection to organized crime.
Other laws in Sweden
- Same-Sex Marriage
- Marriage legal
- Same-Sex Activity
- Legal
- Age of Consent
- 14–15
- Divorce
- Legal
- 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.