New York Prostitution By The Numbers – 1870

Over 10,000 Prostitutes Of All Types In A City of 942,292

A Mix Of Farmers Daughters, Servants, Teetotalers, Drunkards, Native Born, Recent Immigrants, Widows, The Young, Single & Refined Ladies & Illiterates

From an interesting and self-published 1870 book, Personals or Perils of the Period by Joseph Hertford comes this analysis of the prostitutes of New York. There were at least 10,000 prostitutes coming from various work backgrounds and social statuses. Excerpting from this chapter, Hertford writes:

THE EVIL IN NEW YORK STATISTICS AND FACTS FOR THE LEGISLATURE.

In this city, the vice must be encountered. To understand it, one has to perform the unpleasant duty of making facts of facts. Yet, after all, there are few statistics that can be considered reliable…Ages of prostitutes in New York

Three-eighths of these women were born in the United States, and the rest are of foreign countries.

Of the United States, New York furnished the most, then Pennsylvania, then Connecticut. The Eastern States furnish the most, the Middle States the next largest number, then the Southern States, and lastly the Western States. Five-eighths were born abroad.  Of these, Ireland furnishes more than one-half, Germany about one-sixth, England one-twelfth, British North
America one-twentieth, and the other nationalities the lesser proportions. In large numbers, these fallen girls  begin their career of shame almost immediately upon entering the United States. The vast majority come to New York as emigrants, either to improve their worldly
condition, or to find relatives who had already emigrated to these shores. 

The intelligence of this class may be judged from the following figures: