Sex in El Salvador

I am sure to be accused of writing this post (a) as a blatant attempt to increase my search engine hits, or (b) to show that I am willing to write about any subject so long as it mentions El Salvador. The truth is, I found comparing some recent surveys of sex lives around the world to be kind of interesting. El Mundo recently published the results of a survey about the sex lives of more than a thousand Salvadorans from greater San Salvador. There is also a 2004 survey published by ABC Dateline regarding the sex lives of a similarly sized group of people living in the US. Finally, I came across a small article from the BBC about the sex lives of person in the United Kingdom. For the most part, and perhaps not surprisingly, the surveys showed a great deal of consistency between Salvadorans and those in the US regarding the levels of satisfaction people report having with their sex lives, with the frequency of having sex, and other aspects of their intimate relationships. Here are some tidbits: Average age of losing virginity:

• US -- 17 years
• El Salvador -- 17 years

Average number of sex partners in life:

• US Women -- 6
• Salvadoran women -- 2.3

• US Men -- 20
• Salvadoran men -- 12.4

• Welsh -- 13
• UK average -- 10

(Note the ABC Study says the US averages are skewed upwards by the handful of people who have had a very large number of sexual partners) Sexual preference:

• Describes self as homosexual or bisexual (US study) -- 5%
• Have engaged in a sex act with a person of the same sex (El Salvador) -- 5%

Admit to having cheated on their partner in a relationship

• US Men -- 21%
• Salvadoran men -- 73%

• US Women -- 11%
• Salvadoran women -- 27%

• Scots -- 33%
• Londoners -- 7%

Politics and sex

For someone reason El Mundo checked to see if fidelity varies whether you belong to ARENA or the FMLN -- it doesn't. According to ABC, "Republicans are around 10 points more likely than Democrats to think about sex daily, to be very satisfied with their marriages and sex lives and to wear something sexy to spice things up; and less likely to say they've cheated. In a more directly political context, Republicans are less apt to say premarital sex is OK, and 20 points less likely to say homosexuality is OK for some people."

One other thing to keep in mind when reading these surveys is that they are also likely to be influenced by the willingness of people to be honest in answering questions about sex.