In the UK people are sleeping together less than they were 10 years ago
BRITAINS are having less sex due to busy working lives and the distractions of new technology, according to new research.
Women and men between 16 and 44 are having sex just three times a month
Author: Professor Kaye Wellings
According to a revealing study of the nation’s bedroom habits, men and women are having sex on average six times a month – one less than 10 years ago
The same survey also showed that women are catching up with men in the numbers of sexual partners and are proving more experimental with same sex relationships.
Researchers from University College London surveyed 15,000 and a found lack of interest in sex was one of the most commonly reported problems.
The scientists who carried out the study, which was published in today’s Lancet, said fewer people now cohabit, which also presents people with less opportunity to have sex with their partners.
And more people are taking technology – such as laptops and iPads – into the bedroom putting a dampener on any romance.
Professor Kaye Wellings, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “Work comes into our home now. There is no strict divide, People are taking iPads and laptops to bed.
“People are working very very hard. They are very busy.”
At least four out of 10 men and women have had a recent sexual problem, but only a 10th of those interviewed were distressed or worried about their sex lives.
Despite the frequency of sex dropping, the length of a person’s sex life was found to be longer, with the average person losing their virginity at 16 and continuing to be sexually active well into their seventies.
People are having sex well into their 70s [GETTY]
The survey also found although the average number of partners a woman has in her lifetime had increased to eight, they still trailed behind men who have 12.
Some 16 per cent of women claimed to have had a same-sex encounter, compared to just five per cent of men.
Alarmingly, 10 per cent of women said they had been forced to have sex against their will.
Of those, 85 per cent claimed it was with a former partner, friend or someone else they knew and on average happened around the age of 18.
Less than half told anyone or reported it to the police.
Professor Wellings described the changes to our sex lives over the last 20 years as “remarkable”.
She said: ‘In some areas of sexual behaviour we have seen a narrowing of the gender gap but in others we have seen women overtaking men in the diversity of their behaviour.
‘We need to set these changes in the context of the radical changes in women’s status over the past decade.
‘It’s interesting that the changes are more marked amongst the highly educated and better off.
‘With respect to women the greatest changes really began in the last century, with the changing women’s role in society, education, being in workplace more and being able to control their fertility.’
