- PARIS (Reuters) - Nearly one in five people -- and men more than women
-- have sex without worrying about AIDS, according to a sexuality survey
of people in 14 countries released Tuesday.
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- A fourth of the 16 to 19-year-olds surveyed
are not concerned about the virus and three in 10 of them failed to use
any form of contraception the first time they had sex.
-
- These factoids and other statistics peppered
a report released by the world's largest condom manufacturer Durex, which
surveyed some 10,000 people between the ages of 16 and 45 in 14 countries
worldwide.
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- The countries surveyed include Australia,
Britain, Canada, France, Germany, the Chinese special administrative region
of Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand
and the United States.
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- The survey ranked Australians, French,
Russians and Americans as the most sexually-active populations, jumping
in bed with their partners at least once every three days.
-
- Of everyone surveyed, almost half --
47 percent -- did not use contraception during their first sexual encounter.
-
- The youngest in the bunch, again the
16- to 19-year-olds, use condoms more frequently than those in other age
groups. Some 62 percent had used the latex device in the past three months,
while only 39 percent of 30- to 39-year-olds had done so.
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- The youngest ones also tended to start
having sex younger than the more advanced generations and overwhelmingly
think sex-education should be taught in school to kids by the time they
are 14.
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- On average, 16- to 19-year-olds from
most countries became sexually active before turning 16.
-
- People in all age groups started having
sex at an average age of 17.6. Americans were the most precocious, having
sex at as early as age 16.3, up slightly from the previous year's 15.7.
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- French and Canadian respondents said
they became lovers at 16.6 years old, while Germans on average said they
had waited until age 17.4.
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- The Asians surveyed, from Hong Kong and
Thailand, also waited until age 19. These groups reported the highest satisfaction
rate for the first-time experience: 67 and 68 percent respectively.
-
- Nearly a fourth of the 16- to 19-year-old
bunch would rather share the "birds and the bees" with their
mothers, but only 14 percent had succeeded in doing so. Some 21 percent
would prefer talking to Dad about it, but only five percent had succeeded.
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- Everyone surveyed had heard of AIDS but
not necessarily other sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs), such as chlamydia,
which can cause sterility in women.
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- More than half of all respondents --
65 percent -- worry about the idea of contracting HIV, the virus that causes
AIDS, but nearly one in five -- 17 percent -- had no fears at all, many
because they do not consider themselves in high-risk categories.
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- Durex conducts the exhaustive sex survey
annually.
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