# How many people on earth are having sex at any given moment? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 7, 2008, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182 "2008-12-07T23:52:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/1 "2008-12-07T23:52:10Z")
It’s an odd thought that just popped into my head, but there has to be some way of estimating this. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/2 "2008-12-08T00:35:26Z")
Really ballpark estimation: People in steady relationships have sex 2 times a week on average. People not in steady relationships have sex once a week on average (these aren’t that far-off from actual survey results), starting at age 20 and going to age 75 (when they, on average, die). Let’s say that half the world is in a steady relationship and half not (complete WAG). Each act of sex takes 1 hour. So, the average person is having sex 1.5 hours a week for 55/75 of their life, or a lifetime average of 1.1 hours a week. There are 168 hours in a week, so about 1/150 people are having sex at any given time. The global population is 6.7 billion, so there are about 45 million people engaged in sex at any given point in time. You can get a better estimate by putting in better numbers for any of the inputs, but that’s the basic formula. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/3 "2008-12-08T00:39:01Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Each act of sex takes 1 hour. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/4 "2008-12-08T00:41:37Z")
I’d say at least 2. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/5 "2008-12-08T00:48:00Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Each act of sex takes 1 hour. Don’t make me post a link to the O RLY? owl. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/6 "2008-12-08T00:48:46Z")
Well, if we assume that people have sex on average once per week, and that the average sex act lasts 20 minutes, then each person spends (20 minutes) / (1 week) , or 0.2%, of their time having sex. Assuming that the average number of people having sex at any given moment is constant (time zones, if nothing else, should make that a good approximation), then at any given moment 0.2% of the planet’s population is having sex, or about 12 million. You can plug in different assumptions if you’d like; the method is the same. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/7 "2008-12-08T01:00:04Z")
My own guesstimates resulted in around 6 millions (By comparison with other poster’s guesses, the main difference is that I assumed much less people to be sexually active : women past menopause in most countries, kids representing a rather large part of the population in developing countries, shorter life expectancy in these countries, etc…) ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/8 "2008-12-08T01:02:15Z")
> [@Cagey\_Drifter](#): > > I’d say at least 2. Yeah definitely two minutes max. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/9 "2008-12-08T01:12:29Z")
I wonder if there’s a way to get there by looking at birth rates, and then determining percentage of times that sex leads to pregnancy, factoring in contraceptive use, and… gosh, i’m tired. ---
**Author:** ![AllWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@AllWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllWalker)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/10 "2008-12-08T09:41:28Z")
I’d respond to this thread, but I have a headache. But I’ll make it up to you tomorrow - I promise. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/11 "2008-12-08T10:16:13Z")
So when is it MY turn? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/12 "2008-12-08T13:41:51Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > > [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > > > Each act of sex takes 1 hour. > > :dubious: I guess it depends on what you call an “act of sex.” Does this include foreplay and afterplay? Dinner and flowers before? Or just the actual genital contact? An hour seems reasonable for the spirit of the OP given it’s a SWAG anyway. ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/13 "2008-12-08T14:15:12Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > People in steady relationships have sex 2 times a week on average. People not in steady relationships have sex once a week on average Man, I got to get my stats up. Rob ---
**Author:** ![critter42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@critter42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/critter42)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/14 "2008-12-08T14:26:49Z")
OK, everyone NOT having sex right now reply to this thread… ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/15 "2008-12-08T14:30:40Z")
> [@critter42](#): > > OK, everyone NOT having sex right now reply to this thread… You’ll have to wait an hour. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/16 "2008-12-08T14:35:27Z")
Once we know the answer, can we try to figure out how many of them are having sex with neither of the participants having consumed any alcohol? I always wondered what the population of the earth would be if alcohol was not around. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/17 "2008-12-08T14:58:01Z")
> [@critter42](#): > > OK, everyone NOT having sex right now reply to this thread… Amusingly, I’m pretty sure I was having sex when the thread was started. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/18 "2008-12-08T15:16:53Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > Once we know the answer, can we try to figure out how many of them are having sex with neither of the participants having consumed any alcohol? I always wondered what the population of the earth would be if alcohol was not around. Beer, the ultimate fertility drug. [carcino.gen.nz - will bryant - carcino.gen.nz](http://carcino.gen.nz/images/index.php/00b9a680/058fb457) ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/19 "2008-12-08T19:52:32Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Each act of sex takes 1 hour. Yeah yeah yeah. I knew people would give me shit about this. Tell you what. Each act of sex takes as long as you want to estimate it as. Just multiply my figure by how many hours (or fractions thereof) you consider the average sex act to take. Yes, it depends on what you count as “sex”, and it depends on how truthful you think people are when they respond to sex surveys. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182/20 "2008-12-09T15:23:38Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > **How many people on earth are having sex at any given moment?** All of them, except for me. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-on-earth-are-having-sex-at-any-given-moment/476182.md?page=2)