Whether we're all voyeurs at heart or we depend on knowing about other people's lives to determine how we're faring ourselves, lots of people seem to want to know how much sex people have on average. How do you measure up — and does it matter?
How Often Do People Have Sex On Average?
While there's plenty of research on the topic — and I do mean plenty — that remains a tough question to answer. The frequency of sex depends, after all, on numerous different factors, including:
- Whether you are in a relationship, married, or single
- The length of your marriage or relationship
- How old you are
- How healthy you are
- What your sexual orientation is
- What country you live in
If you're keen on finding out how much people belonging to a group you're also in have sex, on average, you can certainly browse the web for research that pertains to your personal situation. Meanwhile, here are some interesting bits from the Kinsey Institute's 2010 survey on sexual behavior:
- Married couples between 25 and 49 (in the US) have more sex than coupled or single folks in the same age range: anything from a few times a month to more than once a week.
- Singles between the ages of 18 and 24 don't have nearly as much sex as you might think: only two percent of the men had sex more than four times a week, along with five percent of women. Married folks in the same age range have much, much more sex.
- Being older doesn't have to mean being sexless, as 13 percent of single men over 70 were found to have sex a few times a month to weekly, along with 63 percent of married guys and 15 percent of coupled ones. Nearly 25 percent of partnered women older than 70 have sex more than four times a week.
How Often Should I Have Sex?
The same research that determined how much sex US residents have also noted that more sex doesn't mean a person is happier. Other studies revealed that sexual satisfaction is indeed correlated with increased marital satisfaction on the whole, but satisfaction isn't the same as frequency, which generally goes down the longer you've been married.
The bottom line is that sex doesn't come with dosage instructions, and if you're happy with your sex life, you're good — regardless of how often others do it. If you're not happy with the frequency of the sex you're having and you're in a relationship, open communication might help you, or you may want to embark on the path of talking to a sex therapist. Also know, though, that being happier in your relationship generally leads to more sex quite naturally, so if you want more sex, concentrating on other aspects of your couplehood may do the trick.