Men have twice as many sexual partners as women

09:00 AEST Fri Dec 16 2011

December 16, 2011

Men have twice as many sexual partners as women over the course of their lives, says new research out of England.

According to The Telegraph, The Health Survey for England found that men reported having 9.3 different partners on average, with a quarter of men claiming to have bedded more than 10.

Women, on the other hand, reported a mean average of 4.7 sexual partners in their lives so far, with a quarter having just one.

"More women than men reported having sexual intercourse with only one partner of the opposite sex in their lifetime (24 per cent of women compared with 17 per cent of men), and conversely more men than women reported having sexual intercourse with 10 or more partners of the opposite sex (27 per cent of men and 13 per cent of women)."

Interestingly, of the poll of 14,000 people, a third of men questioned admitted they were merely estimating the figure, while the women were more likely to be certain of the amount of lovers they'd had.

Your say: Do men really have twice as many sexual partners as women, or do they just embellish their number of conquests ... while women perhaps understate theirs?

Also read
Women accept three minute sex
Why women love a bad boy
6 signs she's interested in you
Hottest royal women
How to decipher her flirting signals
George Clooney's hot new girl
6 types of women to avoid
Boost your sex appeal

For all the latest from Australia's leading men’s entertainment website, like RALPH on Facebook

Like the RALPH Facebook Page

User comments

There is a saying that only 20% of men have access to most of the sexually available women, so if that's really the case, the numbers make perfect sense.

Was is the mode of the number of partners vs sex. My theory is that 20% of men and 5% of women are very promiscuous and that the 20% of men are sleeping across the whole set of women not just the 5% that are promiscuous. This means that the mode of partners for the women is actually higher than that of the men. Think of a circle of 10 couples. All of the couples sleep with each other. and two of the men sleep with all of the women. Work out the averages the number is number of partners. men are on the left 10 - 2 10 - 2 1 - 3 1 - 3 1 - 3 1 - 3 1 - 3 1 - 3 1 - 3 1 - 3 The average for both is 2.8. But obviously this isn't the whole story since 8 of the men only had 1 partner and almost of the women had 3 the rest 2. Men get their bad reputation from the 2 that slept with 10 women each.

who are all these men having sex with then.

Haven't studies shown that women are more likely to lie about their sexual partners? Jethro, a generalisation still holds at 80%. Nothing is 100% guaranteed.

One of my very dear friends found the love of her life when she was forty. They had the inevitable conversation about past lovers. She told him how many. He, shocked, said - Aren't you supposed to half it? she said - I did. Anyone who reads in this area knows it is a really fraught issue. Biological sex says 'go go go' for both men and women. Culture says - go go go - for men, and - well - 'seem pure in certain contexts' for women and 'go go go' only if you are prepared never to be accepted by some groups. So women learn - to shape what they are prepared to own as their experience differently dependent on context. For every hetero man having sex - there is a woman involved. I think the real differences are not in number of partners, but in society's openness to women's sexuality. Much of masculine culture is about controlling women's sexulaity. If men are cool about multiple partners, they might be open to the fact that women have them too. They just don't tell.

I believe that these experts are probably ostriches, they live with their heads in the sand! Women just don't disclose in the same way men do. I wonder which women they asked.....if they asked women in their 30's and older, I can guarantee it would be a lot higher. As I can assure you, the old sex drive definitely kicks in around the mid 30's. I've slept with more men in the past few years than I did up until my 30's. Maybe Aussie women should be asked......we are a bit more honest!

Uh, how is this even possible? every time a man has sex with a woman it also means a woman has sex with a man, so it would be exactly equal

Assume the average number of sexual partners a man has is x and assume the average number of partners a woman has had is y. Therefore it must be the case mathematically that, x*no. of males = y*no. of females. (since the total number of partners the male population has had, must be the same as the total number of partners the female population has had.) The article says x=9.3 and y=4.7. Therefore there no. of males to no. of females = 4.7 to 9.3 = 0.5. That is, the study indicates either males double females in total population, or men over-exagerate the number of sexual partners they have by twice as much as their female counterparts.

The math doesn't add up. Many of the sexual partners that men have had are in fact prostitutes.

these so called "experts" got no idea. they would even make a survey into facts.. these are all suggestions not factual.out of 100 people, they may have some 80% but it does not mean 100%. However, it is quite common that men have more chances to be promiscuous than women.We do not need a survey or research on about it. These experts are attention seekers with their fallacious "findings". Do i have to feed these trolls?

Write a comment

Email: *
Your email will not be shared with any third parties or published with your comment.
Nickname: *
Location: *

Subject:
*
Comment:
*
Maximum characters 1000

* Indicates required field

Comment guidelines

Avoid using:

Personal attacks
Irrelevant comments
HTML tags
Personal information
Offensive language
Text in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS

See full comment guidelines

Comment guidelines X

Thank you for sharing your opinions with other users of NineMSN. People will find your comments more helpful if you include relevant information and avoid some common pitfalls.

Please note: All reviews and comments submitted are subject to moderation, NineMSN reserves the right to alter and / or remove any content that does not comply with usage guidelines.

What to include in your comment: