10 Most Common Sex Positions: Statistics on Popular and Preferred positions
By Bedbible Research Center / April 18, 2023
In the following article we have gathered survey data on the most common sexual positions that people report to normally use. We have analyzed the data such that the most popular sex positions for all demographics, and around the world is represented. This should thereby offering an up-to-date and in-depth understanding of most common, normal, and favorite sexual positions.
Please feel free to use the insights with the proper reference to this article.
Key insights into the most popular sexual position
- The most common sexual position are Doggy Style (35% report it as their favorite they use most often).
- 22.5% report to use the missionary sex position most often, while 19.4% use cowgirl most frequently.
- 69’er is the most searched for sexual position with 1.8M yearly searches in the US alone.
- For women cowgirl (#3) is less preferred and popular than missionary (#2), while doggy style (#1) is still the most common.
- For men the biggest favorite is doggy style (#1), followed by cowgirl (#2), and missionary (#3).
- 69’er is a very normal sexual position for lesbian women, while gay man frequently use doggy style.
- Doggy style is the most common sexual position in the US, UK, Germany, France, and Spain.
- Missionary is the most common sexual position in Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway.
- When asked, what new sex position people wanted to try, most answered the tabletop sex position (20%), and 16% wanted to try 69’er standing up.
The most popular sexual position
There are multiple ways to find out, what the most popular sexual position is. In the following we used two different methods to determine it.
On the one hand we used a representative survey of 4,547 respondents from the US and EU.
Secondly, we used the search term frequency on google for each position name – this was done to determine the search interest in each type of sexual position.
Determining the most popular positions based on the survey we find the following distribution in answers from respondents:
| Rank | Sex positions | % who report it to be favorite |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Doggy style | 35.1% |
| #2 | Missionary | 22.5% |
| #3 | Cowgirl | 19.4% |
| #4 | Holding legs up | 4.3% |
| #5 | 69 | 4.3% |
| #6 | Spooning | 4.1% |
| #7 | Reverse cowgirl | 3.9% |
| #8 | Oral | 3.2% |
| #9 | Anal | 2.1% |
| #10 | Tabletop | 1.2% |
Based on the survey results we find that:
- The most popular sex position is Doggy Style with 35% of people voting it, as their favorite.
- The second most popular sexual position is missionary, which gathered almost 23% of the votes.
- The third favorite position among adults is the cowgirl voted so by 19% respondents.
Overall the results therefore showed that:
- Doggy style is the most common sexual position, with 35.1% reporting it as their favorite sexual position.
- Missionary is the second common sexual position, with 22.5% reporting it as their favorite sexual position.
- Cowgirl is the third common sexual position, with 19.4% reporting it as their favorite sexual position.
- Holding legs up is the fourth common sexual position, with 4.3% reporting it as their favorite sexual position.
- 69 is the fifth common sexual position, with 4.3% reporting it as their favorite sexual position.
- Spooning is the sixth common sexual position, with 4.1% reporting it as their favorite sexual position.
- Reverse cowgirl is the seventh common sexual position, with 3.9% reporting it as their favorite sexual position.
- Oral is the 8th common sexual position, with 3.2% reporting it as their favorite sexual position.
- Anal is the 9th common sexual position, with 2.1% reporting it as their favorite sexual position.
- Tabletop is the 10th common sexual position, with 1.2% reporting it as their favorite sexual position.
Based on the google search volumes for different sexual position the results vary.
This is likely due to the fact, that google search volumes are a better indicator of what sexual positions users are interested in learning more about, rather than what their favorite position are. Hence, search volumes are unlikely to make a good predictor of what the most frequently used sexual position in the population is.
| Rank | Sexual position | Monthly searches | Yearly searches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 69 | 148,000 | 1.8M |
| 2 | Reverse cowgirl | 141,000 | 1.7M |
| 3 | Missionary | 117,000 | 1.4M |
| 4 | Cowgirl | 75,000 | 900K |
| 5 | Rim job | 55,000 | 660K |
| 6 | Scissoring | 49,000 | 590K |
| 7 | Lotus position | 18,000 | 216K |
| 8 | Butterfly position | 4,200 | 50K |
| 9 | Queening | 4,100 | 49K |
| 10 | Wheelbarrow position | 3,000 | 36K |
Women’s favorite sex positions
Although women’s favorite sexual positions do not differ significantly from men’s favorites, it is slightly different – at least when it comes to which ones are the second and third most popular positions.
Women’s reported top 10 most popular sex positions:
- Doggy style
- Missionary
- Cowgirl
- Holding legs up
- Spooning
- 69
- Oral
- Reverse Cowgirl
- Kneeling Wheelbarrow
- Tabletop
Men’s favorite sex positions
Men in general are more a fan of the cowgirl position (second most popular after doggy style) over the missionary (which is women’s favorite). While missionary are women’s second favorite position it is only men’s third most popular choice.
Similarly, the reverse cowgirl position is very popular among men – making it as the fourth most popular position – compared to women who rank it as their 8th most popular overall.
- Doggy style
- Cowgirl
- Missionary
- Reverse cowgirl
- 69
- Spooning
- Oral
- Holding legs up
- Anal
- Tabletop
Most popular positions, by sexual orientation
In the following we have provided a table showcasing the 5 most popular sex position for each sexual orientation (in gender categories).
It is no wonder that the overall results for all men and women are similar to the results we find in the population amongst heterosexual men and women (due to the large part of the population identifying as such).
Therefore, the most interesting findings where the following:
- All sexual orientations have doggy style in their top 5 favorite sex positions except for lesbians.
- Gay men prefer Anal and oral over any missionary position.
- Both homosexual men and women have oral sex as one of their top 5 favorite, while it is not the case for heterosexual or bisexual men and women.
| Sexual orientation, by gender | #1 Most popular | #2 most popular | #3 most popular | #4 most popular | #5 most popular |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heterosexual, Women | Doggy style | Missionary | Cowgirl | Holding legs | Spooning |
| Heterosexual, Men | Doggy style | Cowgirl | Missionary | R. Cowgirl | 69 |
| Homosexual, Women | Oral | 69 | Missionary | Spooning | Scissoring |
| Homosexual, Men | Anal | Doggy style | Oral | Missionary | 69 |
| Bisexual, Women | Doggy style | Cowgirl | Missionary | Lotus position | Holding legs |
| Bisexual, Men | Doggy style | Missionary | Anal | Holding legs | Cowgirl |
Geographical differences
Here is a table showing each countries mos popular sex position:
| Country | Most common sexual position |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Doggy style |
| Belgium | Cowgirl |
| Netherlands | Missionary |
| Germany | Doggy style |
| France | Doggy style |
| Spain | Doggy style |
| Portugal | Holding legs up |
| Italy | Cowgirl |
| Austria | Doggy style |
| Hungary | Holding legs up |
| Romania | Doggy style |
| Poland | Spooning |
| Denmark | Missionary |
| Sweden | Reverse cowgirl |
| Norway | Missionary |
| Switzerland | Cowgirl |
| United States | Doggy style |
We found that across countries, Doggy style was the most common sex position to be the favorite – being picked as the favorite by 7 of 17 countries on the list.
What positions do people want to try the most?
In addition to finding out what sexual positions people used the most, and searched for thew most we also wanted answer the luring question: “What sexual positions do people really want to try?”.
Below is the answers respondents provided to that question:
- 19.9% of respondents wanted to try the Tabletop sex position the most.
- 16.1% of respondents wanted to try the 69 standing up sex position the most.
- 13.4% of respondents wanted to try the Kneeling wheelbarrow sex position the most.
- 12.1% of respondents wanted to try the Anal sex position the most.
- 9% of respondents wanted to try the Reverse cowgirl sex position the most.
- 8.7% of respondents wanted to try the Standing sex position the most.
- 6.4% of respondents wanted to try the doggy style sex position the most.
- 5.3% of respondents wanted to try the 69 sex position the most.
- 5% of respondents wanted to try the Holding legs up sex position the most.
- 4.2% of respondents wanted to try the Spooning sex position the most.
All the positions depicted:
In the following post of the 50 best sex position, you can find most of the already discussed positions (popularity often arise among the best sex positions).
