Sex and Happiness

We examine the relationship between sexual activities and happiness using a sample of 3800 adults from China. We establish some firm results about the contribution of sexual activities and relationships to happiness for an important country other than the United States. Our main finding is that those who have more sex and better quality sex, proxied by frequency of orgasm and emotional and physical satisfaction with one’s primary sex partner, are happier. Another major finding is that the happiness maximizing number of sexual partners is one. We also identify important gender differences between men and women. For men, there is a stronger relationship than for women, between the frequency, and physical aspects, of sexual intercourse and happiness. For women, there is a stronger relationship than for men between giving, and receiving, affection to/from their primary sexual partner and happiness.