number one profession that frequents prostitutes in the u.s., as identified by pimps: police officers.

breakdown of prostitutes' customers by race in the u.s.:

• white 38.9%
• latino 19.4%
• unspecified 19.4%
• black 16.7%
• asian 2.8%

roughly one-third of people who become prostitutes have a relative who is or was a prostitute.

prostitutes in the u.s. often leave the trade to do something else, but most return to it because the pay is higher than that offered by any other job.

42% of u.s. pimps and prostitutes have at least graduated from high school. 36% have attended a college or technical school.

the average pimp in kansas city makes us$5,000 per week. the average pimp in atlanta makes us$32,832 per week.

there are currently about 1 million prostitutes in the u.s. they generate approximately u$14 billion per year.

human trafficking in the u.s. - which you may know better as 'slavery', both for sex and labor - is a us$9.5 billion industry in this country. that's 4 times what burger king rakes in.

1 out of 5 women in 18th century london were prostitutes. unless you were married, there weren't many other options.

after lewis and clark's exploration team made it to the pacific, they spent the winter of 1804-1805 having sex with the locals in exchange for what was left of their belongings. many of the men contracted syphilis, and we can tell where their camp latrines were because the soil contains deposits of the recommended treatment of the day for that disease - swallowing mercury.

the world's most successful pirate was a chinese prostitute named chen i sao. at the height of her career she commanded between 40,000 and 80,000 fellow pirates, never lost a battle, and successfully retired.

in utah, it's against the law to have sex with an animal, but only if you do it for money.

side note: in washington state, it's illegal to have sex with an animal that weighs more than 40 lbs.

saint nicholas is the patron saint of prostitutes, which gives a whole new meaning to 'naughty or nice'.

an american policewoman named kathryn bolkovac was hired by dyncorp aerospace, a uk company, for a united nations post devoted to cracking down on forced prostitution in eastern europe. she was fired when she reported that members of her own group were involved.

the banquet of chestnuts, also called the ballet of chestnuts, was a party held in the vatican by cardinal cesare borgia, the son of pope alexander vi. 50 prostitutes were hired as entertainment, and prizes were given to guests based on how many of the entertainers they coupled with.

in a brilliant bit of marketing, some prostitutes in greece imprinted words on the bottoms of their sandals so that it would write a message wherever they walked. the message? 'follow me'.

a serial killer named william suff, also known as the riverside prostitute killer, murdered at least 12 prostitutes (although police suspect he actually killed more than 20). he liked to impersonate police officers and enter chili cookoffs at work. he used one of his victims as an ingredient in one batch. it won.

(side note: serial killers going back to at least jack the ripper's time most often kill prostitutes. they are easy to attract, the nature of their work makes it easy to get them alone, it's usually several days before they are reported missing - if ever - and their deaths are not usually investigated to any great extent.)