Record sales of adult toys in Australia when Covid-19 began to spread took the world by surprise but it shouldn’t have. A trans-Tasman sex survey says Aussies masturbate a lot.

Adulttoymegastore commissioned a survey of Australians and New Zealanders and asked them a wide range of questions about sex, sexuality and masturbation. The results are in, thanks to UMR, and the truth is – both nations love a bit of rub and tug.

Almost one in ten Australian men masturbate once a day or more often (9%), compared with 6% of New Zealand men, and only 1% of Australian and New Zealand women.

One in five New Zealanders and Australians masturbate a few times a week (21% of New Zealanders, 20% of Australians). They are more likely to be men (31% New Zealand men and 29% of Australian men), than women (12% of New Zealand and Australian women).

One in ten Australians and New Zealanders masturbate once a week (11% of New Zealanders, and 10% of Australians).

15% of New Zealanders and 17% of Australians masturbate a few times a month.

The most frequent masturbators, clocking in at once a day at least are Gen Y men (at 13%). Almost half (43%) of the women from the silent generation surveyed have never masturbated. Around 23% of Females from Gen Z have never masturbated - the second highest group.

Over half of New Zealand and Australian men masturbate at least a couple times a month (65%) compared with just 38% of women from both countries. 24% of men masturbate once a month or less and 34% of women once a month or less often.

Aussies more likely to have never engaged in self-love in comparison to New Zealanders.

Almost half of Australians and New Zealanders surveyed have bought from an adult toy store. (43% NZ and 40% AU). They are more likely to be female, but not by much. Australian men are the least likely to buy from an adult toy store. 41% of New Zealand men have and 38% of Australian men have made purchases.

New Zealand women are most likely to buy with 45% of those surveyed saying they have bought from an adult toy story. 42% of Australian women have. Gen Y are the most likely generation (50%: 41% men, 58% women), and Gen X (50%: 47% men, 53% women) to buy toys. Adult toy buying is less likely by boomers (32%) and the silent generation (21%).

Further information

Adulttoymegastore commissioned UMR to carry out this 2020 sex survey. UMR offers clients an extensive quantitative research suite covering telephone, online, and face-to-face collection. This survey covered 2500 respondents handpicked by UMR to cover age, gender and region in Australia and New Zealand.

Of the survey respondents:

• 42% were married
• 27% were single
• 15% were in a committed relationship and living together
• 7% were in a committed relationship and not living together
• 3% were recently divorced or separated
• 3% were widowers
• 1% were engaged
• less than 1% were ployamorous