Survey Reveals Proper Number of Dates Before Sex

For single people around the world, it seems that date No. 4 is the one most likely to end up in the bedroom for the first time. A TimeOut survey asked 11,000 people in 24 cities, "After how many dates is it appropriate to have sex?" and came up with an average answer of 3.53. Some other highlights:

• Best city for dating: Paris (with a score of 83 out of 100), Melbourne (81), Kuala Lumpur (74), Beijing (59), and Chicago (58). Elsewhere in the US, New York finished seventh (52) and LA ninth (50).
• Most attractive accent: British (27%), American (8.7%), Irish (8.1%), Australian (8%), and French (7.7%).

• Unhappiest daters: New Yorkers are No. 1 here, with 45% describing themselves as "sad to be single."
• Best way to meet: Websites or apps are tops at 60%. (Paris was the lone city where "going out/parties" trumped online dating sites.)

At the Huffington Post, Charly Lester, who helped create the survey, writes that one of her favorite facts from it is that daters rated themselves an average 7.3 out of 10 and their dates a 6.5. "But if everyone is dating someone less attractive than him or herself ..." She also was struck that women in London are "easier" than their counterparts in New York—they bring up sex after an average of 3.57 dates, vs. 4.61 for the Americans. (Single people who happen to be brainiacs are getting some extra help at one site.)