pedrosanchez:

Of the 3,500 American adults surveyed, here are a few major findings:

• Adultery is the exception rather than the rule. Both men and women are remarkably faithful to their partners. Nearly 75 percent of married men and 85 percent of married women say they have never been unfaithful. Over a lifetime, a typical man has six partners, a typical woman two.
• People in this country are divided into three categories according to how often they have sex. One-third have sex twice a week or more, one-third a few times a month, and one-third a few times a year or not at all.
• Married couples have the most sex, they enjoy it the most, and they are the most likely to have orgasms when they do. Nearly 40 percent of married people have sex twice a week, compared to 25 percent for singles.

These statistics paint a rosier picture with regard to faithfulness in relationships than I would have expected. I wonder how well this data has aged, 17 years on.

I think I’ve heard this kind of statistic quoted differently in the past. I’ve heard things like, “one in four men, one in seven women have cheated on their spouses.” That sounds a lot worse to me, despite being the same data from the survey.