It wasn’t so long ago that even the mention of sex was a taboo subject, but at the same time, I am very sure many of us would be curious to know of other peoples sex life’s and views on the subject. Given Thailand’s more relaxed attitude to having a ‘second wife’ (Mia Noi), I wanted to know if this has rubbed off on expats living here.

So, I put a survey out on Thaivisa and the Dan about Thailand website to ask a series of questions to not only understand Expats views but any correlations between age and where they lived in Thailand. I also asked the same questions to those living back in their domestic countries to see how views changed, if at all.

428 responses later and the results were in…

Is it acceptable to have a mia noi?

21% of those questioned agreed it was fine to have a mia noi and even when cutting the data by locations and ages it was difficult to find too much margin of differential by different demographics – except for in two instances.

Only 8% of those under 30 years old said it was acceptable showing a more monogamous, faithful younger demographic. Whilst, I guess not that surprisingly, 32% of those that said their relationship was based on ‘passion’ said it was acceptable.

What type of relationship do you have?

50% of those sampled said their relationship was based on true love, whilst 27% said it was companionship. I expected the answer of companionship to be heavily biased by an older expat, but, according to this data at least, that was not the case.

Only 5% of those asked said their relationship was based on passion. Basically the younger the responder the greater the propensity that their relationship was based on passion.

I was hoping for some eureka correlations but, alas, for the type of relationships it was generally what was expected.

How many times do you have sex each month?

Now by all accounts, 7% of us are having sex most days, whilst 15% more than 20 times a month. This increases to 23% among those that also answered it was fine to have a mia noi.

Don’t also be thinking us lucky expats get our ends away more than our stay at home counterparts too. 18% of those living back home say they have sex more than 20 times a month (but again, this was driven by a younger demographic rather than location).

So, who is having sex the most? Well, 25% – so 1 in 4 – Pattaya expats have sex more than 20 times a month. The only segment that could beat that was those that said their relationship was based on passion, 43% claimed to have sex more than 20 times a month (but how could you expect anything less?!)

Another assumption I made, that was – excuse the pun – put to bed was that 60 years have more sex in Thailand than their stay at home counterparts. Reasoning that they have younger Thai partners eager for more nightly extra curriculum activity. Well, that is not the case either, 9% of those based back in their domestic countries have sex at least 20 times month versus 10% of those based in Thailand.

In summary, I am glad I ran the survey but a little disappointed no startling, headline-grabbing facts presented themselves.

The two main headlines for me were the fact as much as 1 in 5 people were fine with ‘second wife’s’ and that 60-year-olds living back in their domestic countries were having as much sex as their counterparts in Thailand, which was the biggest shock from all the data.