Sex lives of urban Indians

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Sex lives of urban Indians

By: Ash :+: Under: Desi Please
On: ⋅ September 27, 2007 ⋅

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The TOI reports that urban Indians have one of the most exciting sex lives in the world [via Deepti].

68% of Indians surveyed think their sex lives are exciting, compared to 38% in the UK and 36% in France.

74% are comfortable telling their partners what they like in bed, compared to 58% globally and 49% in the UK.

63% say they have enough variety, compared to 47% in the UK and 9% in Japan.

Fidelity is still important and the results indicate that Indians have had fewer sexual partners than most other countries. Indian men average six lovers and women average two, compared to 13 and 7 globally.

These statistics were taken from the Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey. As Deepa says in her blog, we do reproduce like rabbits so it’s no surprise that desis love getting it on!

But of course being a stats person, I can’t help but be suspicious of the methodology. The survey was conducted online and received ~23, 000 responses from 26 countries. Did people themselves select to take the survey? Or did Durex recruit people to take the survey? If they recruited, then what was their sampling and recruiting procedure? For e.g., did they pass out flyers at night-clubs?

What was their response rate like? Keep in mind that 23,000 is not that large a number. And they haven’t provided any break-down by country. What if only 500 people from India took the survey? Is that representative?

Participation rates and selection bias are particularly important for sex surveys. Research suggests that sex survey participants are not representative of the population at large; they engage in more frequent sex, have more varied and unusual sexual histories, and have more exposure to erotic material.

There’s also the possibility of response bias. The wordings of the question could lead folks to answer in a particular way. People may also give answers that they think are socially desirable, for e.g. men usually report more sexual partners than women.

Of course, this is a survey carried out by Durex so all my questions about methodology and bias probably don’t matter!

If you’re interested in sex surveys and statistics, here’s an interesting Slate article on sex surveys after Kinsey’s pioneering work. Oh, while you’re over at Slate, you may want to check out other fascinating articles in their sex issue, including the questions sexperts can’ answer, the weirdest sex stories of 2007 and an illustrated history of the butt!

Discussion

7 comments for “Sex lives of urban Indians”

1: A Dash of Ash » Sex lives of urban Indians | September 27, 2007, 2:30 pm | Direct Link

[...] [Read the rest on Uber Desi] [...]

2: Runa | September 28, 2007, 1:49 am | Direct Link

The TOI reports that urban Indians have one of the most exciting sex lives in the world

Sigh..now if only that were true about Non resident Indians

The survey was conducted online and received ~23, 000 responses from 26 countries

Ah-ha ! I see the problem now .Making a leap from a ( presumably small) online survey to the general population of urban India is IMO deeply flawed. If you are starting out with the minority who have access to the Internet and a further minority who choose to answer the survey ,I am pretty sure the results can be described as skewed- right?

3: desiDiva | September 28, 2007, 3:31 am | Direct Link

Upcoming observation rife with stereotype but bear with me…

America is one of the richest countries in the world and yet Americans dislike discussing money but don’t mind “let’s talk about sex”.

India is one of the top populated countries in the world and most people can’t discuss sex but openly chat about money.

Go figure.

(BTW — Runa my baby is 5 months old and I have a 6 year old…I got married fairly young to the love of my life 10 years ago in Dec. — sorry to digress fellow readers..I didn’t want to be rude)

I hope I haven’t broken any blogging rules here —From all the desi blog sites, Uberdesi –I love you guys (despite life being crazy right now)….sometimes the refreshing kick of the writing becomes stale when bloggers start drinking their own kool-aid…

4: bobo | September 28, 2007, 7:40 am | Direct Link

i skimmed through the article earlier in the morning, and mis-read ‘partner’ as ‘parent’, and was wondering the entire afternoon about that.

heh.

5: neel | September 28, 2007, 10:54 am | Direct Link

just as usual … get the statistics of the Peaks to predict a high-percentage output.

6: Maitri | September 28, 2007, 7:14 pm | Direct Link

Let’s define “exciting” first.

7: Karthik | October 3, 2007, 12:00 am | Direct Link

Sigh..now if only that were true about Non resident Indians

Speak for yourself there sport.

If you are starting out with the minority who have access to the Internet and a further minority who choose to answer the survey ,I am pretty sure the results can be described as skewed- right?

I am not judging, but if this poll was on the condom manufacturers website, then there is only a certain subset of people who go looking and they are customers who use the product, so the stats might be ‘tainted’.

America is one of the richest countries in the world and yet Americans dislike discussing money but donâ€™t mind â€œletâ€™s talk about sexâ€.

India is one of the top populated countries in the world and most people canâ€™t discuss sex but openly chat about money.

I guess the ‘no need to flaunt what your momma gave you’ rule applies to both countries.

I hope I havenâ€™t broken any blogging rules here â€”From all the desi blog sites, Uberdesi â€“I love you guys (despite life being crazy right now)â€¦.sometimes the refreshing kick of the writing becomes stale when bloggers start drinking their own kool-aidâ€¦

Ooh honey, we like to have fun here, so you will not be breaking any rules, you have to try really really hard to.

Besides, when you throw in the L word, we have to make you a honorary life member.