The age-old question of who is better in bed – Australians or New Zealanders – might have been answered! A huge trans-Tasman sex survey by UMR commissioned by Adulttoymegastore has asked Australians and New Zealanders about their sex lives.

The results are surprising and offer insights into the bedrooms of both countries. We asked more than a hundred questions to build a picture of the trans-Tasman sex bubble.

We asked respondents: How good do you think New Zealanders and Australians are in bed? In the self-scoring scale, New Zealanders gave themselves 57.8 on the scale, while Australians gave themselves 60.7 on the scale out of 100. We asked respondents from both countries how often they have sex and if they’re happy with their sex lives.

Less than half of New Zealanders and Australians happy with their sex lives

There is only a slight difference but the survey found New Zealand men are happier with their sex lives than Australian men with 43% against 40%. Australian and New Zealand women have the same rates of happiness - 42% of Australian and New Zealand women are happy with their sex lives.
Generation Z is the happiest with their sex lives at 54%, closely followed by Gen Y at 47%. The least happy generation is the silent generation at 33%. Adulttoymegastore Head of Customer Satisfaction Emma Hewitt says it’s unfortunate so few New Zealanders and Australians are happy with their sex lives.

“I’m sad to see less than half of New Zealanders and Australians are actually happy with their sex lives. We have a long way to go as a society to get people to recognise that they deserve a healthy and happy sex life that’s mutually fulfilling. If we saw that more than half of the country wasn’t happy with their lives – we’d be shocked. So why is it with sex that we don’t talk about it? This stuff really matters!”

Emma Hewitt says she hopes the sex survey results launch a nationwide conversation on sex.

“People want to talk about their sex lives and how to make their sex lives better. But they’re scared. They don’t know where to start. In the survey we asked if people agree or disagree with the statement “sex is important to me”. The survey found 52% of New Zealanders agreed and 54% of Australians agreed. We also asked if great sex is the key to a happy relationship. Men from both countries agreed that great sex is key to a happy relationship (59%). For women, 49% of Australian women agreed and 43% of New Zealand women agreed. The younger generations are more likely to think great sex is key to a happy relationship.

• Silent Generation: 45%
• Baby boomers: 46%
• Gen X: 54%
• Gen Y: 62%
• Gen Z: 60%

“It’s understandable that as we age, we start to feel sex matters less. That’s OK – but it needs to be something you discuss as a couple so you’re both on the same page.”

The secret to a good sex life: Confidence

Emma Hewitt says feeling confident to say what you want and need is crucial to having a happy, healthy sex life. When it comes to being confident asserting sexual needs and desires with a partner, only 45% of Kiwis and Aussies said they felt able to use their voice. The younger the person, the more likely they are to be able to do this confidently. The older, the less likely with Gen Z at 54%, Gen Y at 52%, Gen X at 44%, Baby boomers at 40% and Silent Gen at 34%.

New Zealand men lack confidence in the bedroom

Australians are edging out New Zealanders in being confident in their abilities in the bedroom. Just 21% of New Zealanders said they felt confident compared to 27% of Australians.

Australian women are the most confident (31%) compared with 27% of New Zealand women. While 24% of Aussie men are confident in their sexual performance, compared with only 15% of kiwi men!

Gen X men (17%) are the least confident in the bedroom, while men from the Silent Generation (36%) are the most confident. Silent Generation women are the most confident in the bedroom (50%), followed by the younger women from Gen Z (40%).

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