How Common is Swinging? [+20 Statistics & Facts]
By Bedbible Research Center / September 01, 2023
This is the first mapping of swinging participation and attitudes towards it. The analysis covers 45,341 survey results, as well as 5,132,842 data points collected via online web scrapers and aggregated from individual scientific studies. Collectively this is by far the largest study of the state of swinging in history.
In the following, we explore how many Americans are active swingers, what percentage of couples swing, look at the data on a state-by-state level, and much more.
Key Insights
- 2.4 million Americans (2,377,485) are active swingers, which makes 1.1% of all people between 18 and 80.
- 15% of couples have participated in swinging activities, while 25% showed interest in trying it.
- 6.1% of couples consider themselves active swingers, with one or both.
- In Delaware 1 in every 40 people are active swingers, and it is the US state with the most active swingers per capita.
- You are 32% more likely to be an active swinger if you are married to your partner.
- 31% of people who haven’t tried swinging would be interested in trying it.
- Portland, Oregon is the city with the most swinger clubs (sex clubs) – 39 in total.
- Finland is the only country where over 50% of the population find swinging acceptable (the US is 4th with 46% finding it acceptable.
- 49% of Millennials see their ideal relationship as non-monogamous.
- 40% of swingers are between 40-49 years old, and almost 1 million active swingers.
- Only 57.6% of swingers identify as straight (compared to 94.6 % in the US population)
How many are swingers?
- 1.1% of the sexually active US population are swingers.
- 2.5% of the US population have tried swinging at least once.
- 44% of people who try swinging continue to do it, and become “active swingers”.
- 2.4 million people are active swingers and 8.3 million have tried swinging at one point.
What percentage of couples swing?
- In a 2000 survey, we found that nearly 15% of couples have participated in swinging activities, while 25% showed interest in trying it.
- In other words, one in six couples have tried swinging.
- 6.1% of couples consider themselves active swingers.
- Our research has indicated that couples who swing tend to be middle-aged, married, or in committed relationships, and have above-average education and income levels.
How many could be interested in trying swinging?
When we asked the remaining 97.5% of Americans, who haven’t tried swinging before about their opinions the growing interest became obvious:
- 31% would be interested in trying swinging if their partner asked for it.
- 19% have thought about asking their partner to try swinging of which 27% were men and 11% were women.
Marriage and swinging
Surprisingly the data showed that marriage actually increased the likelihood of a couple being active swingers.
- 1.6% of married couples are active swingers.
- Being married increases the chance of being a swinger by 32% compared to other relationship types (dating, unmarried partners, friends with benefits).
- Married couples are the most active swingers, on average swinging 2.3 times per month, compared to other relationship types who participate in swinging 1.7 times per month.
- The swinging industry is worth an estimated $9.5 billion.
Over time – a growing trend
Swinging is a growing trend, which was clear from our initial studies on open marriages and non-monogamy.
We asked respondents about their overall openness. More specifically the question was:
“On a scale where 0 is completely monogamous and 6 is completely non-monogamous, what would your ideal relationship be?”
We found that…
- 36.4% see their ideal relationship as non-monogamous
- 49% of Millennials see their ideal relationship as non-monogamous, conversely, only 28.9% of Baby Boomers share that opinion.
Age – does it mean active swingers are younger?
As part of our research, we wondered if the question about a monogamous relationship translated into differences that showed more active swingers amongst the younger population.
- Swinging is most popular amongst 40-49-year-olds, where 20.5% of the population is in this age bracket, compared to 39.4% of the Swingers in the same age bracket.
- Close to 1 million of the 2.4 million swingers are between the age of 40-49 years old (1.4% of all 40-49 year-olds in the US).
- Only 0.18% of the 18-29-year-olds are active swingers, which is 8 times less than among the 40-49-year-olds.
- More than 65% of swingers are between 30 and 59 years old.
- Only 5.2% of swingers are younger than 30 years old.
Swinging state by state – What US state has the most swingers?
So, to make this research even more interesting we scraped the online information of active swingers in databases of local clubs, and national online forums and used this data aggregation and geo-information to estimate the number of swingers per state.
Our survey data was used to estimate the number of active swingers that weren’t using on online platform, ergo a multiplier to figure out the exact number of active swingers (more on how swinging works and swingers connect later).
The data showed that:
- Delaware is the state with the most active swingers. 1 out of every 40 citizens are active swingers (2.5%).
- Massachusetts has the fewest active swingers per capita with only 1 out of every 1570 citizens being active swingers (0.1%).
- Florida has the most swingers in total, 193,178 active swingers, toppling both California and Texas despite these states having 18 million and 8 million more citizens.
| # | State | Population 2021 | # Active swingers | % of population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Delaware | 1,003,384 | 25,920 | 2.5% |
| 2 | Vermont | 64,557 | 5,891 | 2.3% |
| 3 | West Virginia | 1,782,959 | 23,868 | 1.3% |
| 4 | Wyoming | 578,803 | 7,736 | 1.3% |
| 5 | Alaska | 732,673 | 9,180 | 1.3% |
| 6 | Oklahoma | 3,986,639 | 48,830 | 1.2% |
| 7 | District of Columbia | 67,005 | 7,918 | 1.2% |
| 8 | Maine | 1,372,247 | 16,073 | 1.2% |
| 9 | Missouri | 6,168,187 | 71,907 | 1.2% |
| 10 | Kentucky | 4,509,394 | 52,460 | 1.2% |
| 11 | Nevada | 3,143,991 | 35,328 | 1.1% |
| 12 | Indiana | 6,805,985 | 74,468 | 1.1% |
| 13 | Alabama | 5,039,877 | 52,107 | 1.0% |
| 14 | Kansas | 2,934,582 | 29,943 | 1.0% |
| 15 | Tennessee | 6,975,218 | 70,290 | 1.0% |
| 16 | Louisiana | 4,624,047 | 46,076 | 1.0% |
| 17 | Mississippi | 2,949,965 | 29,009 | 1.0% |
| 18 | New Hampshire | 1,388,992 | 13,595 | 1.0% |
| 19 | Georgia | 10,799,566 | 103,886 | 1.0% |
| 20 | Colorado | 5,812,069 | 55,266 | 1.0% |
| 21 | Oregon | 4,246,155 | 39,583 | 0.9% |
| 22 | Michigan | 10,050,811 | 93,692 | 0.9% |
| 23 | South Carolina | 5,190,705 | 47,500 | 0.9% |
| 24 | Idaho | 1,900,923 | 17,313 | 0.9% |
| 25 | Iowa | 3,193,079 | 28,943 | 0.9% |
| 26 | New Mexico | 2,115,877 | 19,147 | 0.9% |
| 27 | Florida | 21,781,128 | 193,178 | 0.9% |
| 28 | Washington | 7,738,692 | 68,198 | 0.9% |
| 29 | Arizona | 7,276,316 | 63,652 | 0.9% |
| 30 | North Carolina | 10,551,162 | 91,895 | 0.9% |
| 31 | Nebraska | 1,963,692 | 16,254 | 0.8% |
| 32 | South Dakota | 895,376 | 7,204 | 0.8% |
| 33 | Virginia | 8,642,274 | 69,247 | 0.8% |
| 34 | Rhode Island | 1,095,610 | 8,561 | 0.8% |
| 35 | Pennsylvania | 12,964,056 | 101,192 | 0.8% |
| 36 | Illinois | 12,671,469 | 95,558 | 0.8% |
| 37 | California | 39,237,836 | 269,105 | 0.7% |
| 38 | Hawaii | 1,441,553 | 9,872 | 0.7% |
| 39 | Wisconsin | 5,895,908 | 39,617 | 0.7% |
| 40 | Maryland | 6,165,129 | 41,164 | 0.7% |
| 41 | Minnesota | 5,707,390 | 37,713 | 0.7% |
| 42 | New York | 19,835,913 | 130,860 | 0.7% |
| 43 | New Jersey | 9,267,130 | 55,567 | 0.6% |
| 44 | Arkansas | 3,025,891 | 3,749 | 0.1% |
| 45 | Connecticut | 3,605,597 | 4,357 | 0.1% |
| 46 | North Dakota | 774,948 | 797 | 0.1% |
| 47 | Montana | 1,104,271 | 1,114 | 0.1% |
| 48 | Ohio | 11,780,017 | 10,965 | 0.1% |
| 49 | Texas | 29,527,941 | 24,724 | 0.1% |
| 50 | Utah | 3,322,389 | 2,568 | 0.1% |
| 51 | Massachusetts | 6,984,723 | 4,448 | 0.1% |
| Total | US | 330,694,101 | 2,377,485 | 0.7% |
Swinger club statistics – The Swinging Industry
- The swinging industry is worth an estimated $9.5 billion globally – this includes sex clubs, sex travels, services and subscriptions.
- Swingers traveling alone brings in an estimated 1.3 billion annually of which 447.5 million comes from “Swinger cruises”.
- Lifestyles Organization, the US’s largest swinger travel company, has annual sales of $35 million.
- The annual swinging convention in Las Vegas profits $621,900, from the convention alone.
Top 10 US cities with most swinger clubs (sex clubs)
We also had a look at how many swingerclubs excisted in US cities.
Here is the top 10 US cities with the most swingerclubs.
- 1. Portland, Oregon – 39 swinger clubs
- 2. Seattle, Washington – 37 swinger clubs
- 3. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – 36 swinger clubs
- 4. Miami, Florida – 36 swinger clubs
- 5. New York City, New York – 34 swinger clubs
- 6. Dallas, Texas – 28 swinger clubs
- 7. San Bernardino, California – 28 swinger clubs
- 8. Denver, Colorado – 23 swinger clubs
- 9. San Diego, California – 23 swinger clubs
- 10. Houston, Texas – 22 swinger clubs
Most swingers worldwide (country by country)
Top 5 countries that “believe swinging is acceptable”:
- Finland – 50.50 %
- New Zealand – 47.69 %
- Germany – 46.26%
- United States – 46.10%
- France – 45.73%
Who knows about you being a swinger? (Taboo)
We wanted to find out, if people gladly shared the fact that they were swinging. It seems most are still holding off on this, at least to the immediate family or co-workers.
- 44.1% of swingers do not tell anyone about it.
- 41.9% of swingers tell their close friends.
- 4.1% of swingers share their experience with everyone.
Swinger club visits
Not every swinger uses the so called “swinger clubs” or “sex clubs” that are typically most famous for hosting swinger-parties and events.
In fact the survey results show that:
- 34% of swingers have never stepped foot inside a swinger club.
- 37% of swingers have been to a swinger club less than 5 times in total.
- Only 4.2% of swingers have been to a swinger club more than 20 times.
Sexual orientation
The heteronormative mindset seems to be less prevalent amongst swingers, that have already decided to open up to sexual opportunities and explore new things.
- Only 57.6% of swingers identify as straight (compared to 94.6 % in the US population)
- 8.1% of swingers are questioning or unsure about their sexuality
- 32.1% of swingers identify as bisexual.
- 1.2% of swingers identify as homosexual.
- 1% identify as other sexualities.
Limitations
- Underreporting: Due to the stigma attached to swinging, many might not openly admit their participation in such studies or surveys.
- Selection Bias: Online surveys might over-represent those who are already involved or interested in swinging, thus leading to higher reported numbers.
BDSM Toys: The Unexpected Guests at Swinger Clubs
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