Strip Club Census

Jan 1, 2021, 9:22 AM

I have always been fascinated by the history of strip clubs and their geographic distribution in North America. Over twelve years ago when I first came stumbled upon The Ultimate Strip Club List, I took note of the number of strip club listings on TUSCL and where they were located. This was back in October of 2008. Two months ago, I looked up the number of strip clubs on TUSCL on November 1st to get an idea of what the landscape for strip clubs looked like a dozen years later. The United States has seen a 24.53% decline in strip clubs over the last twelve years. The 2008 count for each state is on the left with an arrow pointing to the 2020 count on the right.

Alabama 32------>20 Alaska 8------>5 Arizona 55------>40 Arkansas 10------>8 California 194------>141 Colorado 23------>19 Connecticut 38------>23 Delaware 6------>3 District of Columbia 7------>8 Florida 205------>179 Georgia 67------>45 Hawaii 21------>13 Idaho 9------>8 Illinois 83------>63 Indiana 73------>48 Iowa 34------>28 Kansas 30------>26 Kentucky 43------>27 Louisiana 50------>38 Maine 5------>3 Maryland 51------>34 Massachusetts 32------>23 Michigan 86------>66 Minnesota 32------>19 Mississippi 10------>7 Missouri 35------>21 Montana 8------>6 Nebraska 10------>8 Nevada 42------>36 New Hampshire 2------>2 New Jersey 117------>100 New Mexico 11------>6 New York 134------>103 North Carolina 88------>64 North Dakota 4------>2 Ohio 121------>84 Oklahoma 45------>30 Oregon 87------>64 Pennsylvania 120------>98 Rhode Island 11------>8 South Carolina 55------>27 South Dakota 14------>13 Tennessee 33------>24 Texas 200------>174 Utah 14------>9 Vermont 3------>0 Virginia 39------>30 Washington 15------>12 West Virginia 44------>30 Wisconsin 71------>62 Wyoming 9------>7

United States October 2008: 2,536 strip clubs United States October 2020: 1,914 strip clubs

Every state has lost strip clubs over the period of the last twelve years with the exception of New Hampshire, which has managed to keep both of its strip clubs. Vermont lost all three of its strip clubs and is the only state to not have a single gentleman’s club as of the current time. Interestingly, the only place to see an increase in club listings was the District of Columbia. It increased its count by one. I guess the elites in Washington are immune to the trends in the rest of the country.

I believe the true number of strip clubs in the United States is actually lower than what the above statistics show. There are a minority of listings on TUSCL that are for peep shows, massage parlors, lingerie studios, and swinger joints. Additionally, there may be listings on TUSCL for strip clubs that have closed and have yet to be marked as such. I can tell you I have shown up to a few clubs listed on TUSCL only to find they were already closed for months or years upon arrival. With the two months that have passed between the strip club census and the publishing of this article, it is likely the figure of 1,914 strip clubs is already obsolete. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to take its toll on businesses, and gentlemen’s clubs have been temporarily closed or forced to jump through hoops to remain in operation in the more draconian states and municipalities. If we removed the massage parlor, peep show, and lingerie studio listings from the tallies and factored in the continued economic hardships during the last couple months, the number of true strip clubs left operating in the United States is much closer to 1,800. This is a far cry from the circle jerking Association of Club Executives throwing around their dated figure of 2,500+.

Canada has seen a 32.07% decline in strip clubs over the last twelve years. The larger decline of strip clubs in Canada versus the United States can likely be attributed to the legality of selling sex in the Great White North. Although it is technically illegal to purchase sex, prostitution is not actively prosecuted in Canada. Why spend a couple hundred dollars for a tease when you can get two pops on a three hole course for the same amount of money? The 2008 count for each province is on the left with an arrow pointing to the 2020 count on the right.

Alberta 28------>19 British Columbia 25------>13 Manitoba 4------>4 New Brunswick 4------>4 Newfoundland 3------>2 Northwest Territories 0------>1 Nova Scotia 2------>0 Nunavut 0------>0 Ontario 103------>64 Prince Edward Island 0------>0 Quebec 66------>54 Saskatchewan 1------>0 Yukon Territory 0------>0

Canada October 2008: 237 strip clubs Canada October 2020: 161 strip clubs

Every Canadian province has lost strip clubs or remained at the same number over the last twelve years. The lone exception was in the Northwest Territory. British Columbia has seen a 48% decrease while Ontario has seen close to a 38% decrease in strip clubs.

The number of TUSCL listings for Mexican strip clubs has increased 26.17% over the last twelve years. This is not due to a boom, but rather it is attributed to gringos hopping the border to discover the pleasures of Mexican clubbing, thus adding more listings for Mexico. Likely there will be many more adult entertainment venues that exist in the interior provinces of Mexico that can be added to The Ultimate Strip Club List in the future. The 2008 count for each state is on the left with an arrow pointing to the 2020 count on the right.

Aguascalientes: 0------>0 Baja California: 23------>41 Baja California Sur: 8------>10 Campeche: 0------>0 Chiapas: 0------>0 Chihuahua: 1------>2 Ciudad de Mexico: 7------>5 Coahuila: 3------>2 Colima: 0------>0 Durango: 0------>0 Guanajuato: 1------>0 Guerrero: 4------>3 Hidalgo: 0------>0 Jalisco: 10------>12 Mexico: 0------>0 Michoacan: 0------>0 Morelos: 0------>0 Nayarit: 0------>0 Nuevo Leon: 12------>15 Oaxaca: 0------>0 Puebla: 3------>3 Queretaro: 0------>1 Quintana Roo: 9------>16 San Luis Potosi: 0------>1 Sinaloa: 1------>3 Sonora: 10------>8 Tabasco: 0------>0 Tamaulipas: 11------>11 Tlaxcala: 0------>0 Veracruz: 4------>2 Yucatan: 0------>0 Zacatecas: 0------>0

Mexico October 2008: 107 Mexico October 2020: 135

From other research I have done, the high water mark for gentlemen’s clubs was halfway through the first decade of the twenty-first century, more specifically 2006. Regress in social attitudes and progress in technology have been two of the main culprits. Once upon a time, it was completely acceptable to have corporate outings at gentlemen’s clubs and submit the costs as a business expense. Nowadays, we live in a society where heterosexual men are demonized, homosexuality and transgender deviance are applauded, and fourth-wave feminism is weaponized. Once upon a time, if one wanted to see a naked woman, strip clubs were one of the only options. The Internet Age has facilitated alternatives such as free streaming porn, camgirls, OnlyFans, sugar babies, escort websites, and cheap international airfare for sex tourism abroad. The younger generations have not embraced strip clubs like the older ones. The genius behind Detroit’s Flight Club, Alan Markovitz, said it best, "The Baby Boomers are retiring. They were for 20 years an amazing customer base. The Millennials are not coming to the strip clubs that much." To make things even worse, half of Generation Z can’t even figure out what their gender or sexual orientation is. I doubt we will ever see a great revival in gentlemen’s clubs in the United States and Canada, but if their decline remains gradual, enough of them will be around for the next few decades for us to enjoy.

Comments (15)

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twentyfive4 years ago

I don’t know vero much about most of the states in the USA but I can tell you that just in my neck of the woods (SE Florida) It fells like we have lost 30-40% of the stripclub venues but on the plus side the ones that have opened seem bigger and better run, we’ve prolly lost most of the real small dicey type places though

mjx014 years ago

great article

Flyer784 years ago

Thanks for the stats. It's very interesting.

elmer4 years ago

I concur great article. You obviously spend a lot of time doing research it's a shame in the end it's damn depressing.

herbtcat4 years ago

I wonder if part of the increase in Mexican listings is really related to an increase awareness of the clubs by US residents, as opposed to a volume of "new" clubs popping up in Mexico. Care to speculate on how many of the "new" clubs now listed on TUSCL actually existed pre-2008 but we just not listed on the site?

sinclair4 years ago

herbtcat, go to Spanish-language mongering sites that cater to Mexicans, and you will see many of the Mexican "strip clubs" have been around for decades. There is no new boom. Prostitution has been a pretty stable business in Mexico. If anything you can argue there have been a small degree of closures in Mexico too. For example, the cartel wars in Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas have almost entirely caused their Boy's Town to become three-quarters abandoned, and the rest of the establishments are hanging on by a thread. Mexico City has been cracking down and closing "strip clubs" over the last few years under the guise of trafficking. I actually know of about a dozen clubs offhand in the western states that do not have TUSCL listings, but I'm too lazy to deal with the headache that is adding new clubs on here right now.

Muddy4 years ago

Great stuff Sinclair I’m really into this stuff too. I will say the clubs I have seen close in my opinion they probably needed to close, the writing was definitely on the wall. And I think some consolidation could be a good thing too to keep the quality up.

And I wonder what the damage is gonna be when the listings catch up after the nonsense this past year.

TxVegas4 years ago

That’s an interesting article. Do you have a count of how many clubs you have been to and how many have closed?

I went back and looked at my reviews and several clubs have closed. I guess it is just a sign of the times. .

sinclair4 years ago

TxVegas, I counted 32 clubs that I have reviewed that are now closed. Last I checked, I had reviewed something like 292 different clubs. So about 11% of the places I have visited have closed. The first strip club I ever visited closed three and a half years ago. The strip club I experienced extras for the first time also closed four and a half years ago.

captainfun4 years ago

Awesome post and summary. On point in every way.

Boss Hogg4 years ago

Businesses come and go. The problem with strip clubs isvthat it is often difficult to open a new one. Many cities have zoning laws which relegate adult entertainment businesses to less desirable parts of town. Investors would rather open a sports bar on a well-traveled thoroughfare than risk their money on a strip club in a warehouse district.

docsavage4 years ago

Great article and I agree changes in social attitudes and technological advances are the main causes of the decline. There a couple minor factors involved too.

I've talked to long time dancers several times over the years and they say business never completely recovered after the 2008 economic crash. The 2006 peak in clubs happened just as the economy was peaking. The recovery after the 2008 crash was largely a mirage. Strip clubs are a luxury and people cut back on luxuries first when times get tough.

Another factor is demographics. Girls who have worked in clubs a long time have told me the middle aged white guy customer was a main source of income and there are fewer of them now. Some causes may be the already mentioned elimination of clubbing as an allowable business expense and technology leading to more options, fewer traveling salesmen as more business is done on the internet, and the blocking of new clubs opening due changes in societal attitudes leaving more and more clubs in decaying city areas where they take on an increasingly ghetto feel that makes the old white guys feel out of place and less safe. You also have the middle aged customer of previous years aging and becoming too old for clubbing and being replaced by new middle aged men with different attitudes towards strip clubs. I started clubbing in 2009 so I've watched as the clubs have declined and have seen several close here in Indianapolis over the last ten years.

594 years ago

Great information. Thanks for the research. Certainly aligns with my experience. Been visiting clubs ince the mid-80's. I'm no longer the middle aged white customer, more seasoned than that.

Not sure about quantity of clubs but my sense was the peak volumes of patrons visiting clubs was the mid-90s. I check many of the boxes mentioned. Providers. OTC with strippers and UTR. OF. MFC. Skype dates. Haven't done the sex tourism...yet.

DeclineToState4 years ago

-->@OP sinclair: "two pops on a three hole course."

^Classic. You hear / learn something new every day.

-->@docsavage: "I've talked to long time dancers several times over the years and they say business never completely recovered after the 2008 economic crash. The 2006 peak in clubs happened just as the economy was peaking. The recovery after the 2008 crash was largely a mirage. Strip clubs are a luxury and people cut back on luxuries first when times get tough."

^I didn't start clubbing in earnest til 2016, so I can't speak to pre-2008 SC boom with personal knowledge. But my pre-pandemic CF has told me of pre-2008 boom and says $1K nights in San Fran were typical and did not require massive effort (or extras). I find the minimal effort hard to believe based on my 2016-2020 experience, but that's what she said.

stripperlover77710 months ago

👽 It's Social Media, Economy, &

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I Wanna See More Rock Being Played, Techno, Older R&B & Rap, 90's, 80's, Earlier 2000's Across Da' Board, Some New Songs. Lil' Rock From Da' 70's & 60's. For Country, 90's, 80's & Select Songs From Earlier 2000's & Da' New Day.

I Will Say, The New $Pole Dance Spirit, $OTC, $Extras, Side Work In Da' $Escort Service, Good SC Food/Drink Specials In Da' New Day Is Helping. Only Fan's & Webcam Modeling Is Really Puttin' A Damper On SC'S. Porn Shops Be Making Da' $Money & Girls Really Buying Up Da' $Exotic Dancer Stuff Like $Dancer Platforms, Pvt Pole, Fishnets, Booty Shorts/Bikini's, & Lingerie Which Helps In Markets Across Da' Board. Pole Dance Studio & Pvt Pole Is Really Hot & Helps For $Strip Club & $Exotic Dancer Influence In Mi Opinion.

Good Data Sinclair! Like Dashes With Arrows Idea For Showing Da' Stats! I.E. ----------> Inserted Example

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minnow: Not an Article. Should be posted on Discussion Board I'm not sure this is original, recall seeing similar posting on DB.