The Happiest Married Couples Only Have Sex Once a Week: Study

The happiest married couples have sex only about once a week, according to a new study.

Think you need to be swinging from the chandeliers every night to have the most fulfilling marriage? Not even close.

The happiest married couples have sex only about once a week, according to a new study.

Researchers analyzed more than 11,000 men and 14,000 women who answered an extensive relationship study between 1989 and 2012, and found married couples who did the deed roughly once a week were the happiest in their relationship, Forbes reports.

Responses came back roughly the same for men and women, debunking the myth that men typically need more sex than women to be happy. And those couples who hit the sheets more than once a week didn’t report being any happier than the couples who scheduled at least one time to be intimate.

The study, published by Social Psychological and Personality Science, reflects similar data found years prior.

In 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported that 80 percent of married people considered having sex a little more than a few times a month to be "normal" — which equates to roughly once a week.

About 32 percent of married people had sex two to three times per week, according to The Wall Street Journal, and 47 percent responded with only a few times per month. The findings were from "The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States," a 1994 University of Chicago study considered the most comprehensive in the field.

The research also showed that the majority of couples — 80 percent — scheduled the time to get busy in advance, which only strengthened the anticipation for the moment and their connection to one another.

As for those who didn’t have a healthy sex life, or cited being busy or stressed as reasons to not be intimate with their partner, researchers say it is almost always an indicator of underlying issues in the relationship.

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