How Swedes have sex

One of the major stereotypes of Swedes is that they are sexually liberated.

Twenty years ago, a large research project on 2800 people was carried out looking into how Swedes view sex. Participants were between 18-74 years old. In comparison to many other countries, Sweden was consequently seen as a place that has a liberal view on sex. Now this research is about to be carried out again, to see what, if anything, has changed in the last two decades. The suspicion is that a lot has changed in the last twenty years.

So what did the results look like 20 years ago?

Here’s a summary, courtesy of daily newspaper DN.

In 1996,

• Sexual debut was on average 16 years old
• The average woman had 4,6 sexual partners
• The average man had had sex with 7,1 people on average
• Swedes between 26-55 had the most sex
• Sexual activity had increased since the previous study in 1967, except between the ages 31-50 were there was a decrease, probably due to work pressure
• The top 10% were called ‘superactives’ and the men had slept with 29-560 people and the women had slept with 15-100 people
• 38% of the Swedes had experience of sexual relations outside of their committed relationship
• The average amount of penetrative sex was 65 times per year
• 15-20% of women had same-sex fantasies, 3% of men.
• Women more frequently reported a diminshing interest in sex. Difficulty to achieve orgasm was the most common reason. Amongst the men who claimed the same reduced desire, premature ejaculation was the most common reason.

 The last time they had sex,

• 95% had had vaginal sex
• 59-72% had carressed eachother’s genitals
• 25% had oral sex
• 1% had anal sex
• 71% of men orgasmed, 62% of women acheived orgasm
• 80% had sex with their husband, wife, partner
• 5-6% had sex with a friend or casual partner
• 1% had met via a contact ad

In the last twenty years, a lot has happened in Sweden. Easy sexual contacts via aps such as Grindr and Tinder makes sex more accessible. Young people who experiment with their sexualities, and refuse to identify as hetero or homo, is more common than twenty years ago. On the other hand, Sweden is a more multi-cultural society than before and attitudes to sexuality may well be influenced by religion, culture and a new restrictive morality. It will be interesting to read what the results of the new survey reveal.

What do you think? How have things changed?

Let me know in the comments below.