What you’ll learn:

• According to a 2024 review of population data, Switzerland is at 10th place on the list of countries where people have the highest number of sexual partners. 
• People in Turkey declare the highest average number of sexual partners.
• At the end of the list are countries in Asia, including India and China.
• While the data is interesting, we shouldn’t treat it necessarily as accurate. 
• Many people don’t tell the whole truth about their sexual experience.
• For your own sexual satisfaction it doesn’t matter how many sexual partners you’ve had.

Where Do People Have The Highest Number of Sexual Partners?

The World Population Review published a list of countries with the highest average number of sexual partners and the top 10 looks … interesting. 

The leader of the list is Turkey and this is the only country (partly) located in Asia to make it to the top ten. People there state claim to have had at least 14.5 sexual partners on average. 

Surprisingly, spots two and three belong to Australia and New Zealand, with 13.3 and 13.2 sexual partners on average for their inhabitants. The African continent is represented only by one country, South Africa, at number five. 

The rest of the top 10 belong to Europe. One would probably expect that the warm-blooded, south European countries would lead the way here but no, the first three European states to receive high rankings are all in the cold North: Iceland, Finland, and Norway. 

Italy, regarded as one of the most romantic places in the world, made it only at place eight. 

But the biggest surprise is number ten: Switzerland! It turns out people here claim to have had 11.1 sexual partners on average. 

Interestingly, no country from the Americas made it to the top 10, although the United States and Canada were not that far, with 10.7 average number of sex partners for each country. 

Countries With the Lowest Number of Sex Partners

OK, now that we know where people are the most adventurous about sex, let’s look at what the end of the list looks like. 

Countries from Asia seem to have the lowest average number of sexual partners. In India the average is three, whereas in China, Hong Kong and Vietnam it’s under four. 

Is this because of the cultural taboos surrounding sexuality and the value placed on monogamous marriage? Or perhaps people there have more lovers than they’d like to admit but prefer not to say?

Are These Results Even Accurate?

News articles like the one about the number of sexual partners always gather media attention. We’re all curious human beings and data about people’s sex lives always attracts interest. Plus, we like to compare ourselves to others and check how our own sexual statistics look versus the national averages. 

But, how do we know if the data provided is even accurate? How can you ever be sure that when someone says they’ve had this or that number of sexual partners, that this information is true. 

In short: you can’t. Population studies always rely on people’s declarations about their lives. Unless it’s something that’s easy to check, like the number of registered children, we only know so much about people as they are willing to disclose. 

So, I would take these statistics with a grain of sand. How many sexual partners we claim to have is strongly linked to the culture we live or grew up in. For example women tend to lower their number of lovers whereas men more often boast about their sexual adventures. 

One more thing that’s often not included in these general studies is the complexity of our sex lives. Do we only count the number of sexual partners based on the fact of having intercourse with someone? Surely, lesbians would disagree! 

And while a woman who has non-penetrative sexual contacts with other women would likely count these people as her sexual partners, that’s not always the case for heterosexual persons. Those who have penis in vagina intercourse are taught from a very young age that this is the real deal and the rest is not even sex! 

For this reason I think the studies don’t give us the full picture about the number of sexual partners people have. 

Another thing that’s missing on those world maps is a big part of Africa, Asia, and South America. Many countries simply don’t collect such statistics, so our knowledge of global sexual behavior remains limited. 

What Do These Results Tell Us About Sexuality in Switzerland?

When I first found out that Switzerland made it to the top ten of countries with the biggest number of sexual partners, I was surprised. 

I’ve been living here for the past few years and can’t say this is the most sexual place I’ve been to!

Swiss people are known to be reserved and distanced. The culture and traditions here have remained in some ways conservative, especially in the villages. Let’s not forget this is the country which granted women voting rights only in the 1970s!

Still, the Swiss are an interesting nation. Their laws regarding sexuality are quite progressive, for example sex work is legal here, same as abortion, or same-sex marriages. 

But my hunch is that the high number of sexual partners declared has to do something with the number of expats in Switzerland. The Alpine state is a magnet for highly qualified experts from around the world. A quarter of the population are foreigners and in big cities like Zurich, that number is much higher. 

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What’s Promiscuity Anyway?

I hate the word “promiscuous” and many articles discussing recent data on the number of sexual partners have used that term in their headlines, most likely to attract controversy. 

To say someone is promiscuous entails a judgment. To me it’s the same as saying “he or she has many lovers, so he or she is behaving badly.”

Traditionally it used to be women who were labeled promiscuous. For men, more gentle terms such as “player” were reserved. We’re still living in a world of double standards in which a woman who’s had more than one or two sexual partners in her life is deemed promiscuous and a man’s sexual experience is praised exactly as that, experience in a positive sense.

How Many Sexual Partners Should You Have?

Should you care about the average number of sexual partners? Is this OK if you’re way above average, or if you’ve only been with your high school sweetheart your whole life? 

The first thing I would ask is “does it matter to you and if yes, why?”

Are you worried that your partner might find out about your sexual past and not be happy about it? Some of my clients think it’s their duty to disclose their full history if their partner asks about it. 

From my point of view the only thing we must be completely open about is our sexual health. This means taking an STI test before starting a new sexual relationship. The rest is up to us, we can keep our past private. 

Some people, on the other hand, believe that it’s not a good thing if they haven’t had many sexual partners. Usually it’s men who believe that to be a good lover they had to have been in bed with many people. 

But I’ve noticed this insecurity also in clients who are currently in long-term, monogamous relationships. These people think that their lack of experience with other partners is the reason behind their sexual problems.

“Maybe I can’t have an orgasm because I haven’t been with more men in the past,” they tell me. Or they worry that their sex life has become boring because their sexual repertoire is too limited. 

My female clients sometimes think that if they master a trick or two, their partner will be happier and their relationship crisis will just disappear. But the truth is, sexual problems in a marriage or relationship are usually linked to other things that are not going so well in the couple.

To conclude, whether you’ve had one or a hundred sexual partners, you shouldn’t worry about it. What’s important is how you feel about your sexuality today – are you happy, healthy, and fulfilled? If yes, then move on with your life and treat the statistics as a fun fact to share at a cocktail party. 

Sex Is More Than a Number

Sexual statistics always provoke discussions and I think this is their greatest value. Finding out that people in Switzerland are in the top ten of countries with the biggest number of sexual partners made me rethink my own stereotypes.

I always encourage my sex therapy clients to question their own assumptions and beliefs about what it means to have good sex or be a great lover. 

Contrary to what some online gurus are trying to say, you can’t achieve sex mastery just by having multiple partners. 

To be a good lover and truly enjoy everything sexuality has to offer. You need to be able to feel, really feel your own body. And follow your partner’s cues to give them pleasure.

Sex counseling can help you find more pleasure, solve bedroom problems, and improve intimacy with your partner. Get in touch for your sex therapy session online or in Zurich.