Wednesday, January 16, 2008

A Map Showing the Average Age of Loss of Virginity


Via Gavin Richardson. Survey done in 2005 by the Durex Corporation.

12 comments:

Dan Trabue said...

Wow. Looks like the godless commies are doing better than we Christ-like ones.

Allan R. Bevere said...

Dan:

That's because the godless commies are never in the mood since they are always depressed.

Allan R. Bevere said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jeff the Baptist said...

I'm sure totalitarians can do a lot to discourage underage sex that free peoples cannot or will not. But don't mistake that for virtue.

I wonder what the variation is in these countries though. Depending on the sample size and variation, one years difference might not be statistically significant.

Anonymous said...

is this for men, or women, or both?

Anonymous said...

But we're still doing better than the godless Scandinavians and Greenlanders; and the girl from Ipanema is apparently still turning heads every day when she walks to the sea.

I have some doubts about this, considering that the Durex company is in the condom business. Did they take a poll of their customers? Such a poll would have a massive selection bias. Was the map made to encourage the godless commies to catch up to the liberated West? It's not clear to me that the data behind the map have any value at all.

Anonymous said...

I find it a little odd that India would have such a high average - in my mind I imagine that arranged marriage is still practiced there extensively, presumably at younger ages.

Jeff the Baptist said...

"in my mind I imagine that arranged marriage is still practiced there extensively, presumably at younger ages."

Most of the Indians I know who entered into arranged marriages did so in their mid 20s. The arrangement had been made long before when they were children or adolescents, but they didn't actually marry until they were in grad school. I think the families want the children to mature before they marry. It ensures that the kids don't grow apart in adolescence and will still be a good match as adults.

Anonymous said...

Jeff - thanks for your response - that was helpful!

John said...

Larry, do you remember in college when we mused over the value of arranged marriages? It seemed like our best hope for getting girlfriends.

John said...

Wait -- that wasn't a problem for you. I remember you wore a wedding ring in senior year just to get women to leave you alone.

Tim said...

As far as sample selection, I'd imagine there's a bias skewing it to younger ages. How many people, if asked, are going to answer this question at all? The non-responders are more likely to be the "none of your business" types, and I imagine that also correlates at least somewhat with those who wait until they're older. At least, I imagine that people who would actually answer this question are more likely to be people who are "comfortable with their sexuality" (whatever that means).

Furthermore, where were the statistics collected? By a random telephone poll? Or in a self-selecting online questionnaire at Maxim? I'd imagine the latter would have a heavy systematic error.