It’s a question that comes up in any relationship, and now a study conducted by Nottingham, Bristol and Swansea universities has come up with the answer everyone hopes to hear.
The study, published in the Journal of Sex Research has suggested the ideal number is three, for both men and women.
But when it came to a prospective long-term relationship, people preferred their partner to have only slept with two people.
The findings also revealed that women are less attracted to men who have slept more than six people before them.
The average cut-off point according to men is 11 partners.
“A prospective mate with an overly extensive sexual history is statistically a poor bet as a faithful, committed long-term mate,” Dr Steve Stewart-Williams told Mail Online.
“Contrary to the idea that male promiscuity is tolerated but female promiscuity is not, both sexes expressed equal reluctance to get involved with someone with an overly extensive sexual history.”
As part of the research, 188 people were quizzed - 104 were women - and the age range spanned between 18 and 35, with an average age of 21.
The report found that: “The only significant sex differences, men were more willing to get involved with a virgin or with someone with a low number of past sexual partners.
“In the long-term context, the highest willingness ratings for both men and women were for two parters, in the short-term context, it was three.”
But people who took part in the study didn’t seem to meet their own standards.
For women, the average number of past partners was 5.81 and for men it was 8.4.
The study, which was carried out by researchers from the University of California and the University of New Mexico, revealed women’s ideal penis is larger than the global average.
As part of the research, women were presented with 33 different-sized 3D penis models, made of rigid, odourless blue plastic - to minimise radical skin-colour cues - and were then tasked with picking their preferred penis size.
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