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By Choi Sung-jin
The percentage of married Koreans who do not have sex with their spouses has reached 36.1 percent, one of the highest levels in the world, a survey showed Friday.
The longer the couples have been married, the more sexless they are. The portion of couples who have sex once a month or not at all is 30.7 percent for couples married for 11-20 years, 37.2 percent for those married 21-30 years and 54.9 percent for those married 31 years or longer, the survey showed.
Particularly 64.9 percent of couples who sleep in separate bedrooms do not have sex at all, compared with 23.3 percent for those who sleep in the same room, according to the survey of 1,090 people aged 20 or older conducted by Research and Research, at the request of Lina Korea, a life insurance company.
"Given the international average of sexless couples is about 20 percent, and that of Japan, regarded as the most sexless country in the world, is between 35 and 40 percent, Korea's sexless ratio is one of the world's highest," said Kang Dong-woo, head of a sex clinic.
Among Koreans aged 20 or older, the largest share, or 26.8 percent, said they have sex two to three times a month but 21.8 percent said they have sex only one time a month, and 18.4 percent said they have no sex at all. Also, 17.9 percent said they have sex every week, two to three times a week (12.7 percent), every other day (1.8 percent) and almost every day (0.6 percent).
Overall, 41 percent of grown-ups said they are satisfied with their sex life, 36.1 percent said it is so-so, and 23.8 percent said they are not satisfied.
As many as 94 percent of the respondents said that sex is an important element of human relationships, and especially people over 60s (95.5 percent) think more so than any other age groups.
Asked about their views on sex for money, 59.5 percent of male respondents regard it as extramarital affairs but 84.9 percent of women saw it as cheating on spouses.
As to what element of sex gives the most satisfaction, all age groups cited "emotional intimacy." By sex, men pointed to "atmosphere" most while women cited emotional closeness.
Research and Research conducted the survey with 1,090 men and women aged 20 or older, on- and off-line, from June 10-17. It has a confidence level of 95 percent with maximum allowable error of plus or minus 2.97 percentage points.
