A reader wrote in today with an interesting question on an old topic: sexual partners. Apparently, most of the numbers she's found only reflect sexual partners before marriage, and as we all know too well, the count doesn't always stop once you're married. Her question, and our attempt at an answer, after the jump.
Dear Scanner,
My buddies and I have gotten into an argument about the "average" number of sexual partners. The only numbers we could find online are averages before marriage which we aren't that interested in. Also, most of the numbers we find are counting only hetro sex. If you can find any real numbers that would be great.
–Shan
Dear Shan,
We haven't the faintest idea how to go about answering this and we're too lazy to try and find the answer. The statistics probably change, at the very least, yearly. So based on whatever statistics you found, our best guess would be to assume that half of people who are married cheat, so you can add 2.5 partners to half of the married people, add 2.7 to half of the divorced people, and give the gays in urban areas a few extra... maybe subtract a few for the suburbs? Oh, and what about the widows and widowers?
Um, yeah. Perhaps Hooksexup's Miss Information, Erin Bradley, could be more help?
–Scanner Emily