The average (median, technically) across all couples, though, was 5.4 minutes. So it’s clear there’s no one “normal” amount of time to have sex. The average time for each couple (that is, averaged across all the times they had sex) ranged from 33 seconds to 44 minutes. So what did the researchers find? The most striking result is that there was a huge amount of variation. But – science is rarely perfect, and this is the best we’ve got. You may note this could affect the mood somewhat, and might perhaps not exactly reflect the natural flow of things. That is as practically awkward as it sounds: participants pressed “start” at penile penetration and “stop” at ejaculation.
The best study we have estimating the average time to ejaculation in the general population involved 500 couples from around the world timing themselves having sex over a four-week period – using a stopwatch. Sex isn’t something people normally do while monitoring the bedside clock, and unassisted time estimation may be difficult during a transportative session of love-making. The other problem is that people don’t necessarily know how long they go for.
