Sociodemographic characteristics of female sex workers in Pakistan in 2006 and 2011 for the nine cities included in both rounds of the IBBS (N=6987)
| Lahore | Other Punjab | Karachi | Other Sindh | Quetta | Peshawar | All cities* | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 2011 | 2006 | 2011 | 2006 | 2011 | 2006 | 2011 | 2006 | 2011 | 2006 | 2011 | 2006 | 2011 | |
| N=425 | N=375 | N=1200 | N=1126 | N=403 | N=377 | N=800 | N=750 | N=396 | N=345 | N=423 | N=367 | N=3647 | N=3340 | |
| Median age (range) | 26 (15–45) | 27 (15–45) | 26 (15–45) | 27 (16–45) | 28 (15–45) | 26 (15–48)† | 28 (16–45) | 25 (16–49)† | 28 (16–45) | 26 (16–40)† | 25 (15–45) | 27 (16–43)† | 27 (15–45) | 26 (15–49)† |
| % Illiterate (95% CI) | 40.2 (32.7 to 48.3) | 43.5 (36.5 to 50.7) | 43.9 (37.0 to 51.1) | 43.1 (38.1 to 48.4) | 42.9 (37.2 to 48.9) | 53.9 (46.8 to 60.7)† | 28.8 (20.6 to 38.5) | 54.4 (44.8 to 61.7)† | 74.2 (66.3 to 80.8) | 75.5 (70.5 to 79.9) | 36.0 (28.3 to 44.5) | 55.0 (48.7 to 61.2)† | 42.4 (37.9 to 47.1) | 51.3 (48.6 to 54.0)† |
| Marital status, % (95% CI) | ||||||||||||||
| Unmarried | 27.3 (22.2 to 33.1) | 24.9 (18.7 to 32.2) | 26.2 (21.2 to 31.8) | 25.0 (21.0 to 29.6) | 15.4 (11.1 to 21.0) | 19.4 (14.6 to 25.2) | 18.8 (13.8 to 24.9) | 27.3 (20.6 to 35.3) | 47.0 (40.3 to 53.8) | 49.3 (44.9 to 53.7) | 41.6 (36.3 to 47.1) | 31.6 (25.8 to 38.1) | 27.5 (24.6 to 30.7) | 28.1 (25.0 to 31.4) |
| Married | 48.7 (43.0 to 54.5) | 70.3 (62.5 to 77.1) | 56.8 (52.7 to 60.9) | 62.3 (58.8 to 65.7) | 77.4 (71.6 to 82.3) | 69.8 (64.6 to 74.5) | 78.4 (72.0 to 83.7) | 54.3 (42.8 to 65.3) | 42.4 (36.0 to 49.1) | 38.2 (32.0 to 44.8) | 43.5 (37.7 to 49.4) | 37.3 (33.2 to 41.6) | 59.8 (55.9 to 63.6) | 57.0 (53.3 to 60.7) |
| Separated/ divorced/ widowed | 24.0 (19.8 to 28.8) | 4.8 (3.1 to 7.4)† | 13.9 (20.6) | 12.6 (9.4 to 16.7) | 7.2 (4.7 to 10.8) | 10.9 (7.9 to 14.8) | 2.9 (1.3 to 6.4) | 18.4 (13.7 to 24.3)† | 10.6 (7.0 to 15.7) | 12.5 (9.1 to 17.0) (N=343) | 14.9 (11.5 to 19.0) | 31.1 (24.4 to 38.7)† | 12.7 (10.7 to 15.1) | 14.9 (13.3 to 16.5) (N=3337) |
| Living arrangements, % (95% CI) | ||||||||||||||
| Family home | 82.8 (78.0 to 86.8) | 82.6 (75.3 to 88.1) | 81.8 (73.2 to 88.0) | 78.3 (73.8 to 82.3) | 80.4 (69.0 to 88.3) | 90.6 (84.3 to 94.6) | 78.8 (67.4 to 86.9) | 90.1 (83.7 to 94.2) | 83.8 (79.4 to 87.3) | 82.6 (73.0 to 89.2) | 88.4 (80.8 to 93.3) | 73.5 (68.5 to 77.9) | 82.1 (79.0 to 84.8) | 82.9 (80.4 to 85.2 |
| Guest house | 4.0 (1.9 to 8.4) | 0.41 (0 to 3.0) | 1.4 (0.67 to 3.0) | 0.49 (0.19 to 1.3) | 0 | 0.27 (0 to 2.0) | 2.5 (0.52 to 11.1) | 0.40 (0 to 2.0) | 7.4 (4.2 to 12.6) | 5.2 (2.9 to 9.3) | 1.9 (0.71 to 5.0) | 11.9 (8.8 to 15.9) | 2.5 (1.7 to 3.7) | 2.3 (1.7 to 3.1) |
| KK/brothel | 12.7 (9.7 to 16.5) | 17.0 (11.7 to 24.1) | 11.9 (8.3 to 16.8) | 21.2 (17.2 to 25.8) | 18.9 (11.0 to 30.4) | 9.1 (5.1 to 15.6) | 8.3 (4.0 to 16.3) | 9.5 (5.8 to 15.1) | 8.6 (6.4 to 11.5) | 12.2 (5.7 to 24.3) | 9.5 (4.7 to 18.2) | 14.6 (10.8 to 19.5) | 11.3 (9.2 to 13.9) | 14.8 (12.6 to 17.3) |
| Other | 0.47 (0.11 to 2.0) | 0† (N=241) | 4.9 (11.1 to 19.2) | 0 (N=1015) | 0.74 (0.24 to 2.3) | 0† (N=374) | 10.5 (3.0 to 31.1) | 0 (N=749) | 0.25 (0 to 2.1) (N=394) | 0 (N=327) | 0.24 (0 to 1.8) | 0† (N=362) | 4.1 (1.9 to 8.8) (N=3645) | 0† (N=3068) |
| Non-local FSWs, % from another city (95% CI) | 33.7 (27.8 to 40.1) | 12.5 (9.7 to 16.1)† | 19.0 (14.6 to 24.4) | 13.5 (9.0 to 19.9) | 48.1 (39.3 to 57.1) | 33.7 (28.7 to 39.1)† | 17.3 (7.1 to 36.3) | 6.8 (3.7 to 12.2) | 23.5 (19 to 28.5) | 29.6 (22.5 to 37.7) | 30.7 (23.2 to 39.4) | 15.3 (11.2 to 20.4)† | 25.4 (21.4 to 29.8) | 16.0 (12.8 to 19.8)† |
*Refers to the following cities where the IBBS was conducted in both 2006 and 2011: Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Sargodha (these last three in ‘Other Punjab’), Sukkur and Larkana (these last two in ‘Other Sindh’).
†Significant difference at the 5% α-level using parametric and non-parametric tests of significance between survey rounds within each region, as well as between rounds for all cities combined.
Guest house includes hotels and hostels.
FSW, female sex workers; IBBS, integrated biological and behavioural survey; KK, kothikhana; N, number of respondents.