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By Kim Da-hee
Nearly 40 percent of Korea's married couples live without sex or have it just once a month, startling figures show.
According to a survey released Wednesday, Korea has the second-highest rate of "sexless" married couples after Japan.
Married couples that do not have sex for more than a month are classified as "sexless."
According to the report published by life insurance company LINA's health magazine "Heyday" and the Kang Dong-woo Institute for Sexual and Couples' Health, 38 percent of 1,090 adults in Korea confessed they had sex once a month or less. The institutions surveyed over 784 married and 306 unmarried adults to gauge the sexual life of Koreans.
Among the married respondents, 36 percent said they are sexless. The rate reached 44 percent among married people over 50.
Dr. Kang Dong-woo, who led the survey, said the married couples' sexless rate is the world's second after Japan, where it was 44.6 percent in 2014.
The report said sleeping in separate bedrooms is the major cause for the rate. The sexless rate for married couples sleeping in separate bedrooms (65 percent) was far higher than that of those who sleep together (23 percent). Those who sleep in separate bedrooms are three times more likely to feel dissatisfaction with their sexual lives than those who sleep together.
"The sexless couples who sleep in separate bedrooms showed less satisfaction about their married life, with 5.8 scores out of 10, than those who sleep together, with 6.6," the insurance company said. "The result shows sex is not just for physical pleasure but also an important factor for satisfaction in a relationship."
