About 70 percent of Chinese surveyed said they have only one partner, while the percentage is merely 11 percent of people in Germany, France and the United States.

The findings were revealed yesterday in the 2001 Global Survey conducted by Britain-based SSL International plc, the health-care group that produces Durex condoms.

People from the United States have had 14.3 partners on average, the most of any of the 28 countries surveyed. The French have had 13.2 and Canadians 10.6, according to the survey. The Chinese have the least of 2.1.

Split equally between men and women, 18,500 sexually and non-sexually active adults aged 16 to 55 were involved in the sixth annual survey of its kind.

People worldwide are having sex for the first time at an average age of 18. People in China are the oldest at 22, followed by those in India at 20.3 and Malaysia at 20.

The survey has found that people from the United States are starting to have sex at the age of 16, younger than those in any of the other countries. Germans lose their virginity at 16.6 years on average, the French at 16.7 and the British at 16.9.

The preferred source of sex education for the Chinese is books, leaflets and magazines, while people in the Netherlands and the United States would be told by their mothers. Australians, Japanese and British people prefer learning in school.

The survey also found that more women prefer to learn sex from their mothers and many male respondents choose to learn in school.

On average, people have sex 97 times a year. Men claim to have sex 102 times a year, while women say they put the figure at 91. One in 10 said they have never had sex.

Paris is considered the sexiest city by a third of people in the survey, followed by Venice and New York.

(China Daily June 8, 2002)