How Common is Swinging In America – Open Relationship and Swinger Statistics

By Bedbible Research Center / May 15, 2023

LAST UPDATED 05/15/2023– 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.

Key insights

  • 2.4 million Americans (2,377,485) are active swingers, which makes 1.1% of all people between 18 and 80.
  • 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 (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 year old, 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.

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, un-married partners, friends with benefit).
  • 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 to 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 are 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, national online foras and used this data aggregation and geo-information to estimate the number of swingers per state.

Our survey data was used to estimate the amount of active swingers that werent 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 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.
#StatePopulation 2021# Active swingers% of population
1 Delaware1,003,38425,9202.5%
2 Vermont64,5575,8912.3%
3 West Virginia1,782,95923,8681.3%
4 Wyoming578,8037,7361.3%
5 Alaska732,6739,1801.3%
6 Oklahoma3,986,63948,8301.2%
7 District of Columbia67,0057,9181.2%
8 Maine1,372,24716,0731.2%
9 Missouri6,168,18771,9071.2%
10 Kentucky4,509,39452,4601.2%
11 Nevada3,143,99135,3281.1%
12 Indiana6,805,98574,4681.1%
13 Alabama5,039,87752,1071.0%
14 Kansas2,934,58229,9431.0%
15 Tennessee6,975,21870,2901.0%
16 Louisiana4,624,04746,0761.0%
17 Mississippi2,949,96529,0091.0%
18 New Hampshire1,388,99213,5951.0%
19 Georgia10,799,566103,8861.0%
20 Colorado5,812,06955,2661.0%
21 Oregon4,246,15539,5830.9%
22 Michigan10,050,81193,6920.9%
23 South Carolina5,190,70547,5000.9%
24 Idaho1,900,92317,3130.9%
25 Iowa3,193,07928,9430.9%
26 New Mexico2,115,87719,1470.9%
27 Florida21,781,128193,1780.9%
28 Washington7,738,69268,1980.9%
29 Arizona7,276,31663,6520.9%
30 North Carolina10,551,16291,8950.9%
31 Nebraska1,963,69216,2540.8%
32 South Dakota895,3767,2040.8%
33 Virginia8,642,27469,2470.8%
34 Rhode Island1,095,6108,5610.8%
35 Pennsylvania12,964,056101,1920.8%
36 Illinois12,671,46995,5580.8%
37 California39,237,836269,1050.7%
38 Hawaii1,441,5539,8720.7%
39 Wisconsin5,895,90839,6170.7%
40 Maryland6,165,12941,1640.7%
41 Minnesota5,707,39037,7130.7%
42 New York19,835,913130,8600.7%
43 New Jersey9,267,13055,5670.6%
44 Arkansas3,025,8913,7490.1%
45 Connecticut3,605,5974,3570.1%
46 North Dakota774,9487970.1%
47 Montana1,104,2711,1140.1%
48 Ohio11,780,01710,9650.1%
49 Texas29,527,94124,7240.1%
50 Utah3,322,3892,5680.1%
51 Massachusetts6,984,7234,4480.1%
TotalUS330,694,1012,377,4850.7%
Important to remember that 88 million are under 18, and 33 million people are over 80 in the US, which we find less likely to be in active swingers. Ergo the total percentage would be 1.1% of the possible swinger population.

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”:

  1. Finland – 50.50 %
  2. New Zealand – 47.69 %
  3. Germany – 46.26%
  4. United States – 46.10%
  5. France – 45.73%
Please note that data collection was limited or unreliable, and for example restricted to reliable data on 5 countries in Africa, 4 countries in Asia. All countries with unreliable datasets have been excluded from the list.

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.