Sex shops and lap dancing clubs in England fall by third

In February 2018 David Rhodes reported that lap dancing clubs, sex shops and sex cinemas numbers in England had fallen by a third in the past five years.

The BBC England Data Unit sent Freedom of Information requests to all local councils responsible for issuing sex establishment licences with 281 out of 327 responding to how many they had issued.

Get the data

• YouGov: survey on attitudes to strip clubs
• Spreadsheet: Number of sex establishments with active licence and Number of new applications for sex establishment licence 2011-2018, by local authority

Interviews and quotes

• Michael Bray, pornographic magazine and DVD shop owner of 16 years, Huddersfield
• Catherine Mayer, co-founder of the Women's Equality Party

Visualisation

• Bar chart: Decline in sex establishment licences in England
• Bar chart: Fall in active sex establishment licences in major cities: England, percentage change 2013-2018

Other background

• Thet text of the FOI request sent to all local authorities can be found here