Asia's lovers rate sex far less highly than those elsewhere around the globe

Asia's lovers rate sex far less highly than those elsewhere around the globe, spend less time having intercourse¹ and are less likely to reach orgasm, according to a survey released Tuesday.

The international survey of more than 26,000 people in 26 countries and regions found Asians ranked themselves among the least satisfied with their sex lives.

The Global Sexual Wellbeing Survey was released at this week's World Congress on Sexual Health in Sydney.

The survey found most people around the globe had sex 106 times a year, with the Japanese the most infrequent on 48 and the Greeks putting in an Olympian effort on 164.

It might explain why respondents from Japan were the least satisfied with their sex lives, with only 10 percent ranking it as exciting, well behind the global average of 49 percent.

Hong Kong (32 percent), Australia (40), Singapore (41), Thailand (42) and New Zealand (43) were also among the bottom 10 places in the exciting sex life stakes.

India's lovers were the world's quickest, taking 13.2 minutes per session compared to the global average of 18.3 minutes, with the ranking topped by Nigeria, on a leisurely² 24 minutes.

Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and Australia were also well below the world average for time spent on intercourse.

But compared to the SAR, the Chinese mainland's lovers were the seventh most lengthy³ in the world on 20 minutes.

Only 24 percent of respondents from China reported always experiencing an orgasm during sex, the lowest, followed by Japan on 27 percent.

On average, 59 percent of respondents strongly agreed that sex was important to them, with the lowest rankings coming from Thailand on 38 percent.