From the Economist, Aug 20th, 2007:

[randomness]

Risky business

Aug 20th 2007
From Economist.com

SEX may be risky wherever you are. But those indulging in the riskiest behaviour often live in some of the world’s richest nations, according to Foreign Policy magazine, using data from the latest Durex Global Sex Survey—the world’s largest survey of sexual behaviour, with over 317,000 participants in 41 countries. They have sex at a younger age and sleep with more people, both indicators for contracting sexually transmitted infections. Each year, there are more than 340m new cases of such infections globally, excluding HIV.



(From http://www.economist.com/daily/chartgallery/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9675837)

Comments

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

Is that a surprise? Because it seems to me that having sex younger and with more people would logically be associated with greater wealth and therefore more leisure time.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't think it surprising, no. Also, I wonder if people in richer countries also tend to be more willing to talk about sex in surveys.

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

Wealthier countries also tend to be less traditional and more libertine (with some notable exceptions), and to have higher average levels of education, all of which leads to later marriages and more wild-oats-sowing beforehand.

I want to know what counts as "sex" for the purposes of the survey, though. Did it specify? Or did the respondents just interpret it however they like?

Also, I'm a little disturbed by the average ages of virginity loss. For every 40-year-old virgin, that's more 11- and 12-year-olds having sex than I care to think about.