Australia is the most sex-addicted country in the world, according to a spicy new study that found people wealthy western countries are more likely to develop an addiction.
Australia is also ranked as the third most drug-addicted and gambling-addicted country. With an index score of 62.28, that makes Australia the third most addicted country in the world.
An index score above 100 means that people are more likely to exhibit a particular trait while an index below 100 means they’re less likely to do so.
The study, conducted by Go Smoke Free, analysed factors behaviours associated with addiction, including alcohol consumption, tobacco use, and screen time across 200 countries including Australia, the UK and France. It found that Australia had the third highest score and a shocking index score of 360.14 for sex addiction.
Factors used to create this score included the number of sexual partners per year and the mean age virginity was lost; Australia’s results were 13 partners per year and 18 years old.
It’s not a pretty picture for drug and gambling addiction in the country either, with the study discovering 0.54% of the country’s GDP came from gambling and 2.17 cases of drug use disorder per 100 people.
“Many of the top ten countries are high GDP countries, suggesting that those with higher incomes are able to afford to fuel their highly addictive behaviours, and are therefore more likely to become hooked,” the report said.
In comparison, Romania was the most addicted country overall, with a score of 66.79. It’s most prevalent addictive behaviour is alcohol consumption, with the highest intake of any country at 16.99 litres per adult per year.
Other highly addicted countries saw high levels of alcohol, tobacco and caffeine consumptions. The use of illicit drugs such as opiates, cocaine and cannabis was also considered.
