Average number of sexual partners

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Average number of sexual partners


It might not be immediately obvious why, in a closed population with the same number of men and women, the average number of sexual partners for men must equal the average number of sexual partners for women. Here's a proof.

Graph
Suppose there are n men and n women and imagine lining them up in two rows, the women facing the men. Now draw a line between a man and a woman if they have been sexual partners. The number of lines emanating from a woman is the number of sexual partners she has had. Therefore, the total number w of lines emanating from the women (w=10 in the picture) divided by the total number n of women in the population gives you the average number of sexual partners per woman (which is 10/5=2 in the picture). By the same argument, the total number m of lines emanating from the men divided by the total number n of men in the population gives you the average number of sexual partners per man. But since each line that emanates from a woman connects to a man, we have w=m. Therefore, we have w/n=m/n, so the two averages are equal.

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