Average Number of Sexual Partners

[howdydudey]

Will someone enlighten me with the math to illustrate how this statement is true: In the USA "Men have had more sexual partners than women - 12.4 compared to 7.2"

I am surely overlooking something obvious, but since male to female ratio is about .50 shouldn’t the number of sexual partners be equal as well?

Or are the numbers are skewed due to homosexuality?

[justscott]

Maybe something like this happens.

Young male sleeps with 3 diff girls in his neighborhood. Young male 3 partners. Each girl one partner.

[howdydudey]

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe something like this happens.

Young male sleeps with 3 diff girls in his neighborhood. Young male 3 partners. Each girl one partner.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yea but if each guy slept with 3 girls then the girls would have to average 3 as well

[justscott]

Hey i am in no way a math guy my degree is polisci. Anyway the point i was making is not everyone has to sleep with everyone, so that is why its not 50/50.

[RocketManJames]

Interesting... you're right if we have equal number of men vs women, then the average should be the same for each sex assuming no homosexual activity.

So, maybe what is meant is the median, which could work out. And, if that's the case, then something interesting comes out... that is that promiscuous women have had many more partners than their promiscuous male counterparts. And, that's not all that surprising considering it's a lot easier for a woman to get laid if she wanted compared to a guy who had a similar desire.

-RMJ

[RocketManJames]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey i am in no way a math guy my degree is polisci. Anyway the point i was making is not everyone has to sleep with everyone, so that is why its not 50/50.

[/ QUOTE ]

The OP is right. If you assume N women and N men, you can see that the average has to be the same. Let's draw a list of the N men and N women.

Man 1 Woman 1
Man 2 Woman 2
Man 3 Woman 3
...
Man N Woman N

Now, draw a line connecting all (non-homosexual) sexual partnerships ever. Sure, some men will have a lot of links (studs), and some women will have none (virgins). But, what you'll see is that the number of end points of lines on both men and women sides will be equal.

(endpoint count)/N = avg sexual partners

-RMJ

[Subfallen]

[ QUOTE ]

Or are the numbers are skewed due to homosexuality?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, this must be it. Certainly has nothing to do with the cultural mores that glamorize multiple partners for men, and damn promiscuity for women. After all, we know everybody is completely honest in anonymous surveys, and everybody uses the same definition for "sexual partner."

[justscott]

Ok as previously stated not math guy and really dont know if what i said was close to right. I was just commenting really off the cuff. It does seem that if some sleep with some, and some sleep with none etc.. Then it would give you a different avg. I will let some stat guy take it from there.

[justscott]

OH yea Subfallen makes a good point also. Guys lie this could be the simplest of all explanations..

[RocketManJames]

Talking to a friend about it... I think the correct answer is <drum roll, please>: Guys lie about getting more sex (to appear more studly) and women lie about getting less sex (to appear less slutty).

-RMJ

Edit: Okay, I guess the other guy said this already.