'We're losing our morals over sex'

13 April 2012

Single men and women in Britain may have the loosest sexual morals in the world, according to a survey out today.

Nearly six in 10 Brits surveyed said it was normal for a person in their 30s to have had 10 or more lovers during their single years.

Only Germany and the United States recorded similar results with 52% and 49% respectively, in the study by Euro RSCG Worldwide.

In comparison, just 17% of Chinese and 30% of French consider it normal to have had a number of lovers in the double digits.

Fewer than half of the 2,127 Britons surveyed believed that staying faithful to one partner was "natural". Only 42% said monogamy was "the natural state for human beings".

Only the Germans were less likely to agree, with 40% believing that humans are inclined to stick with a single partner for life.

Again, the Chinese were most moral, with 70% believing in monogamy. This compared to 57% of Americans and 44% of French.

The survey, released in New York, found that British women may be more tolerant of extra-marital affairs than others around the world.

More than one in 10 - 11% - of both men and women in Britain said they were tolerant of affairs which "cause pain to neither party".

In the other countries studied, men were more tolerant of such affairs than women: 13% of men versus 4% of women in the US; 27% to 14% in China; 28% versus 16% in Germany and 20% of men to 17% of women in France.

Women may not be surprised to learn that men are more likely to expect regular sex from their partners.

Some 63% of British men believe they have the right to regular sex, compared to 47% of women.

In the US the comparison is 76% men to 62% women while in France the gap is narrower, 85% to 76%.

The gap is much narrower in China and Germany with 82% to 81% and 79% to 77% respectively.

Only 16% of Britons reported that their religious beliefs influenced their sexual behaviour, compared with a substantial 39% of Americans but only 3% of French.

:: The survey by New York-based marketing communications agency Euro RSCG, reflected answers of 1,982 Americans, 2,127 British, 2,000 French, 3,158 Germans and 2,079 Chinese.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in