The foundation of this study is a large proprietary dataset built from publicly visible OnlyFans profile fields. Importantly, this dataset does not include every account registered on OnlyFans. Only profiles that meet an activity threshold are included: a minimum of 5 posts, images, or videos published, and the account must have been active within the last 6 months. This filters out dormant, abandoned, or placeholder accounts and ensures the dataset reflects creators who are actively trying to generate revenue. There are significantly more accounts registered on OnlyFans than appear in this analysis, but those that do not pass this activity test are excluded.

For every qualifying profile, the following fields are recorded:

Profiles are grouped by location. Entries that resolve to a country are used in the Country Analysis. Entries that resolve to a specific city (validated against a master city reference database) are used in the Top 100 Global Cities table. Entries resolving to state/province names, regional descriptions, territories, or other non-city terms are excluded from the cities table.

Not every profile in the dataset contains a usable location field. To estimate the full creator population for each location, observed counts are scaled up using a coverage rate computed at runtime directly from the dataset - specifically, the proportion of all loaded profiles that have a non-empty location value.

Why City-Level Numbers Differ from Country-Level Numbers

You may notice that the Total Models figure shown on the site profile pages differs from the numbers in the country and city analysis tables. This is by design. The two datasets serve different purposes:

City-Level Two-Stage Extrapolation

For the Top 100 Global Cities table, an additional correction is applied beyond the basic coverage factor. Many profiles include a location that resolves to a country or state (e.g. "United States > Florida") but not to a specific city. These profiles are correctly counted in the Country Analysis but cannot be attributed to any individual city.

To ensure that city-level totals roll up proportionally to the country-level totals, each city's count is scaled by a per-country specificity uplift:

Distributing Revenue by Engagement

Rather than splitting revenue by creator count (which would assume all creators earn equally), revenue is distributed by an engagement score - a weighted combination of subscribers and followers that proxies each location's share of actual monetisation activity:

Average Annual Earnings Per Model

City Population Data

For the Top 100 Global Cities table, city population figures are sourced from Macrotrends and use metropolitan area populations rather than city-centre-only figures. This is because creators tend to list the nearest major city as their location rather than the specific outer-suburban municipality they live in. A creator in Parramatta, for example, will typically list "Sydney" rather than a smaller local area name. Using metro populations ensures that density calculations reflect the realistic catchment area that each city name represents in the data.

Gender classification uses automated image recognition applied to each model's profile photo, combined with any gender-affirming statement present in the profile. Where both signals are available, stated gender takes precedence as the authoritative source. Image recognition provides coverage where no gender is explicitly stated.

1. Profiles identified as Trans - either through stated gender or image recognition - are classified first and excluded from subsequent steps.

2. Remaining profiles identified as Male via stated gender or image recognition are classified as Male.

3. All remaining profiles are classified as Female based on stated gender or image recognition output.

4. Within Male profiles: those whose profile data contains the keyword "gay" are counted under % Male Gay. This is calculated as a share of all male profiles for that location.

5. Within Female profiles: those whose profile data contains "lesbian" or "girl/girl" are counted under % Female Lesbian. This is a share of all female profiles for that location.

For each country or city, averages are computed across all profiles in that group that have a non-null value for the relevant field. These are per-model averages, not platform-wide totals.

The following three columns appear in the Top 100 Global Cities table only (they are not included in the Country Analysis sheet).

Min Wage / Yr ($)

Annual minimum wage figures in USD are sourced from government publications and international labour organisation records for each country. Where no statutory minimum wage exists (e.g. some Scandinavian countries), the wage floor established by national collective bargaining agreements is used as the reference. Monthly figures are multiplied by 12 to produce the annual amount shown.

% Diff vs Yearly Min Wage

For each country, the analysis identifies which real-world agricultural export industry generates annual revenue most comparable to the estimated creator economy. This puts the scale of content creator income into concrete, tangible terms.

Data Source

Agricultural export values are retrieved from the UN Comtrade database using 2024 data. Only products classified under HS Codes 01-24 are eligible - covering live animals, vegetable products, foodstuffs, beverages, and tobacco. Minerals, electronics, machinery, and manufactured goods are excluded.

Comparable Agricultural Export(s) (2024)

The name of the matching agricultural export industry or combination of industries. Where a single export industry's value falls within 10% of the country's OnlyFans revenue estimate, it is used as the match. Where no single export meets this threshold, the closest combination of agricultural exports is used. Names are abbreviated for readability (e.g. "Oilseeds, grains & medicinal plants" rather than the full Comtrade commodity description).

Estimated Export Revenue ($M)

The value of that export industry in millions USD, sourced from UN Comtrade. This is the figure the OnlyFans revenue estimate is being compared against.

The Top 100 Global Cities table adds two columns not present in the Country Analysis, providing city-level economic context for creator earnings.

Cost of Living (NYC=100)

Each city is assigned a cost-of-living index score, normalised so that New York City equals 100. A score of 50 means consumer prices are approximately half those of NYC. The index covers rent, food, transport, and services.

Purchasing Power ($NYC)

City Validation & Consolidation

Every candidate city token extracted from a location path is validated against a master city reference database (locations.csv, filtered to entries with location_type = city). Tokens that do not match a known city - including countries, territories, regions, sub-continents, and vague descriptors - are rejected. This prevents non-city entries (e.g. "Taiwan", "Antarctica", "Eastern Europe") from appearing in the results.

New York City borough entries (Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island) are merged into a single New York City record. Paris metropolitan sub-regions are consolidated into Paris. The resulting Top 100 spans 21 countries, with the US, UK, Canada, and Australia most heavily represented.