Sex by Numbers: Men vs. Women

A weekly look at sex and culture, by the numbers.

Men and women were created equal, but they’re by no means the same. When it comes to sex, the differences between our genders are ever apparent. This week’s Sex By Numbers examines our sexual discrepancies—including fantasies, post coital slumber, and online romance scams.

80: Percentage of men who report they easily drift to sleep after having sex. Women, on the other hand, struggle with this, with just 46% reporting that they manage to easily slip into post-coital slumber

2-3: Number of times per month women in a survey reported fantasizing about “pleasant” sexual encounters; men, unsurprisingly, do this much, much more

28: Age at which 2000 British women reported feeling their sexiest, independent from a man’s perception or input

20: In a study that asked men and women to rate their levels of pain for a variety of different conditions—including arthritis and diabetes—women reported pain levels that were 20% higher than that of males

2,600: Number of online romance scams that have been reported to the FBI thus far in 2012. Women fall victim much more frequently than men, filing more than 1,800 of the complaints.

40: Percentage of condom-buyers that are now female. Just five years ago, 80% of condoms were bought by men.

$13,500: Cost of a 24 karat gold-plated vibrator, an indication of the growing market for and interest in women’s sex toys, an arena once dominated by men.

14%: Portion of the wage discrepancy between men and women that Italian researchers posit can be attributed to menstruation.

Image: mexindian

Rosie Spinks

Rosie Spinks is a freelance journalist from California with a degree in Environmental Studies. Her work has been published in publications including Sierra magazine, GOOD magazine, the Ecologist, and the Guardian Environment Network. A passion for travel, running barefoot outdoors, and reconnecting people to what is good dominates most of her thoughts. You can follow her writing on Twitter and Tumblr.