When it comes to buying sex toys, some countries take it more seriously than others. Or at least that's what new data from Vouchercloud, a UK-based voucher website, showed. They used a sample of 18 of Lovehoney’s most popular products to see just how much each country’s internet users searched for some of the most popular sex toys online.
And the results were pretty surprising. Though some of the top 10 was made up of countries you would expect (you kinky Scandis, you), not all of them were that predictable. "Our first thought was, naturally, it’s a pretty good way to deal with the cold," Ben Harrow, who conducted the research for Vouchercloud, tells Bustle. "Denmark and Sweden weren’t so much of a surprise, given the relaxed approach to life and society they offer up — that and the consistent high performances in happiness ratings. Greenland we have no answers for. Some of the bigger surprises were in the nations that didn’t rank, including Japan, France and Germany. They let their respective sides down a bit, and caught us off guard considering the sexually adventurous and romantic stereotypes that are associated with their residents."
But with some places, Vouchercloud thought it might just be an issue of supply and demand keeping them from searching for a fun new toy. "Europe was actually a lot closer together than we thought, but the rest of the world likely lags so far behind because there’s just not the ecommerce to backup demand across a lot of the rest of the world — you aren’t going to search for sex toys when you can’t buy them!" Harrow says.
If you want to see how the top 10 broke down, here are the countries that couldn't stop searching for sex toys:
1Denmark
Denmark had 118 sex toy searches per 1,000 internet users — making them the randiest of them all. It's not really a surprise with such a sexual, open society, but well done, Denmark!
2Sweden
A fellow Scandinavian neighbor, Sweden came in just behind at 115 sex toy searches per 1,000 internet users — it must be a cultural thing over there... or something in the water.
3Greenland
I don't know much about Greenland, but now I know that they have 108 sex toy searches per 1,000 internet users. And that's enough to give me a good sense of them, I think.
4United States
Come on, U.S. — fourth place!? That's not even on the podium! But at 104 sex toy searches per 1,000 people using the internet, the U.S. still made a pretty good showing.
5United Kingdom
The UK, came in at 96 sex toy searches per 1,000 internet users. They're not all stiff upper lips — I've been living here long enough to know that all that repression makes some of the UK kinky AF.
6Netherlands
At 88 searches, the Netherlands made it into number six on the list. As I always think of the Netherlands as full of sex toys, weed, and tulips, I can't say I was surprised.
7Russia
Just behind the Netherlands, at 87 searches per 1,000 internet users, is Russia.
8Bulgaria
Again, almost there — at 86 searches, Bulgaria was just behind Russia in the rankings.
9Italy
Italy came in at 84 searches per 1,000 internet users, which means that this romantic country is pretty damn sexual as well.
10Australia
And finally, we go down under. At 82 internet searches per 1,000 users, Australia rounded out the top 10.
As you can see, the countries searching for sex toys appear all around the globe — but it's definitely parts of Scandinavia taking the cake. Hey, it's about whatever keeps you warm at night.
