The Great South African Sex Survey has revealed that men start younger, get around more, forget partners’ names, and are altogether dodgy in the bedroom department.

More than a quarter of South African men can’t remember the names of all the people they’ve had sex with. This is among the many startling responses that emerged from the survey, and sums up a depressing profile of sexual irresponsibility among South African men.

Nearly 45 percent of men have had more than 10 sexual partners, and almost the same number – 43 percent – have had three or more partners in the past year alone.

Other statistics that emerged include:

•    What are you thinking about? We now know what women (mostly) think about when they’re having sex: 35 percent are thinking about pleasing their partner, and 30 percent say “I’m too engrossed to think at all”. Only 4,55 percent admit they fantasise about someone else. Take that, George Clooney.

•    We’re an exhibitionist nation. About 79 percent of men and slightly fewer women (73 percent) say they’ve had sex in a public place, where they could conceivably have been spotted. Just about everyone else has fantasised about it.

•   Losing our virginity. Men become sexually active younger: 54 percent claim to have lost their virginity before they turned 18, compared to 44 percent of women.

Condoms and STIs. More reliable is this troubling statistic: just under 55 percent of men have had unprotected sex with a casual partner, and almost a quarter of men have, or have had, a sexually transmitted disease.

And while we’re thinking casual sex, women who are prepared to consider a one-night stand must be quite thinly spread: just 56 percent of women say they’ve ever had one, and they’ve had to cope with all of the 70 percent of men who say they have.

•    Anal sex. We don’t love anal sex quite as much as the French do, but we’re not too averse either: about a third of us (men and women) have engaged in it. Worryingly, given that this is the most risky sexual practice of all, men who claim to have given anal sex are amongst the most cavalier about the use of condoms: 68 percent of this group say they have had unprotected sex. Amongst gay male respondents, a whopping 42 percent say they have never engaged in anal sex, and less than a quarter – 23 percent – say they have received it.

•    Fetishes. Just over a third of all men have a bit of a fetish of the latex/rubber kind.

•    Office romance. More than 40 percent of women say they have had carnal knowledge of a co-worker.