Infidelity Statistics 2021: How Many People in the UK Are Having an Affair?

How Many People in the UK are Having an Affair?

There’s always a relationship scandal of some kind happening in the public eye, whether it’s a politician accused of having inappropriate relations with their colleagues or a celebrity who’s been secretly snapped with a mysterious lover behind their partners’ back. But just how many average members of the UK public have had an affair? And who do these affairs tend to take place with? These are the answers we want to know!

Our investigation found that many of us appear to be turning to Google to secretly plot or seek advice on having an affair:

• Every month in the UK, 480 searches are made for ‘How to have an affair’. That’s the equivalent of more than 15 searches every single day!
  
• A further 400 searches are conducted for ‘affair with a married man’ every single month.
• ‘Affair with coworker’ and ‘affair with boss’ are also searched frequently in the UK, with these terms receiving 50 and 60 monthly searches respectively. 
  

• ‘Illicit Encounters’ which is searched 76,100 times a month in the UK. That’s the equivalent of 102 searches every single hour!
• ‘Ashley Madison’ which is searched for online 68,300 times a month. 
• 'Heated Affairs' which receives 1,400 searches each month.
  

Infidelity Statistics: The Numbers

It's clear that many Brits are intrigued by the idea of having an affair, but just how many go actually through with it? Well...

• A YouGov poll conducted in 2015 revealed that as many as 1 in 5 Brits have had an affair. 
•  More recent studies have found that as many as 25% of Tinder users are already in committed relationships. 
•  Lack of commitment and infidelity have been cited as the most common reasons for divorce in the UK.

Who's Having an Affair?

So who's more likely to have a secret fling, men or women? To find out, we looked a little closer at the data from YouGov’s poll, which found that: 

•  Men are slightly more likely to have an affair than women, as 20% of men admit to having at least one affair, compared to 19% of women. 
•  UK adults who’ve had affairs are more likely to have done so with a friend or work colleague than any other person, as 43% say they’ve had an affair with a friend and 38% reveal they’ve cheated with a work colleague.
  

To find out, we used the polling company eOpinion to survey 1,263 women who are either married or in a relationship in the UK, asking:

Which of the following statements apply to you?

• I’m attracted to my husband or partner’s Dad
• I’m in love with my husband or partner’s Dad
• I’ve flirted with my husband or partner’s Dad
• I’ve kissed my husband or partner’s Dad
• I’ve had s** with my husband or partner’s Dad

The results were unbelievable! The survey found that...

More than a Quarter of Women in the UK Fancy Their Father-in-Law!

Yes, you read that right! The shocking findings reveal more of us than we might expect are harbouring secret fantasies for our fathers-in-law:


• More than 1 in 4 (27.5%) of women in the UK are attracted to their Father-in-Law
• 1 in 5 (20%) have flirted with them
• 1 in 9 women (11%) are in love with their Father-in-Law

And, brace yourself… 

• Over 1 in 20 (5%) have kissed their husband or partner’s Dad 
• And 1 in every 140 (0.71%) have slept with their Father-in-Law!

What about Men and their Mothers-in-Law?

To make it fair, we also asked 1,156 men who are married or in a relationship in the UK:

Which of the following statements apply to you?

• I’m attracted to my wife or partner’s Mum
• I’m in love with my wife or partner’s Mum
• I’ve flirted with my wife or partner’s Mum
• I’ve kissed my wife or partner’s Mum
• I’ve had s** with my wife or partner’s Mum



When it comes to Men and their Mother-in-Laws, we discovered 

• More than 1 in 4 men (27.25%) in the UK have flirted with their partner or wife’s Mum
• Nearly 1 in 5 (18.5%) are attracted to their Mother-in-Law 
• 1 in every 17 men (6%) admit to being in love with them

What’s more: 

• 1 in 15 men (6.5%) have kissed their Mother-in-Law
• And more than 1 in every 100 men in the UK (1.04%) have slept with their Mother-in-Law!

It’s important to note that the survey did not filter respondents based on sexual orientation. So, for example, we would expect women who identify as lesbian to be less likely to be attracted to men on the whole, but we did not ask about sexual orientation as a part of this survey. 

Dilf vs Milf

So with this information, and not in small part due to the extreme level of competition within the office, we felt we needed to reveal which was the stranger sex e.g. who takes the lead in terms of being most desired? Mums or Dads?? To find out, we took a sneak peak at Google search data over the last 12 months to discover who is most sought-after as of 2021.

To do this, we carried out an analysis of online search data using the tool Keyword Finder and discovered that as of March 2021: 


• Every 15 seconds in the UK someone searches for ‘Milf p*rn’ 
• Every 10 minutes in the UK someone searches for ‘Mother-in-law p*rn’
• The term ‘Father-in-law p*rn’ is searched every hour in the UK 
• And someone searches for the term ‘Daddy p*rn’ once every 2 minutes

The Rise of Desirable Dads

Although search terms relating to Mums are searched most frequently, it seems that the British public have recently become enticed by fanciable father figures. 

As you can see from the charts below created using Google Trends, interest in searches for the term ‘Milf’ has remained pretty constant over the past year. 


Interest in search for the term ‘Milf’ over the last 12 months

Interest in the term ‘Dilf’ on the other hand appears to have peaked numerous times during 2021, corresponding with media reports of new celebrity Dads such as Ben Affleck and Kit Harington. 


Interest in search for the term ‘Dilf’ over the last 12 months

Why Are So Many Brits Attracted to Their In-Laws?

Love them or hate them, our survey showed us that an astonishing proportion of adults in the UK are attracted to their in-laws. But why is this? And what makes so many men and women seek out an older fella or mature woman? 

To find out, we even consulted the help of a Relationship Advisor, Katie Lasson from the company Peaches and Screams. Here’s what we learnt:

Why do you think so many women are attracted to their fathers-in-law? 

“From time immemorial, women have chosen partners who have reminded them of their fathers”, says Katie. “The choice of such a partner is mainly due to the desire of women to feel the same peace and security they felt while being dependent on their father. And that's why the image of a father is one of the most common reasons why women choose older men." 

What other reasons might there be? 

“Reliability. The older a man gets, the more he begins to appreciate a stable and lasting relationship. Short-term relationships begin to lose their former attractiveness, if only because they have been enjoyed several times. On the other hand, for women, who are always more focused on long-term relationships, this is just another plus." 

“And confidence”, Katie adds, “Usually, mature men have already managed to realize themselves, they know what they want and know how to achieve their goals. Such men are self-confident, and confidence is one of the qualities that women tend to value.”

Why are so many men attracted to their mothers-in-law?

"Research has shown that men consider older women to be great partners because they are more confident, they have a bigger experience and they do not focus only on starting a family. Some men seem to choose older women in part because there is a greater sense of equality. They emphasize that the attention of an older woman increases their self-esteem, self-confidence. Such women have more life experience, emotional stability. They are honest".

Could it be partly down to experience? 

"Older women are more experienced and therefore – they know what they want. That fascinates men because then they no longer have to indulge in a long search, trying to find out what a woman wants and what she likes. Some might like the fact that older women are generally more financially stable. They have already reached their peaks and know perfectly well what they want in their daily lives. Older women are also much more maternal. They simply have a much stronger maternal instinct. And these women are great at caring for the men they are with. That is why men feel much safer and emotionally better in the embrace of an older woman.” 

So, whether you're harbouring a secret crush on your father-in-law or just innocently found yourself here and are flabbergasted by these filthy findings, why not check out our collection of funny, punny and downright Romantic Cards for the object of your affections - however inappropriate!

Although for what it's worth, we don't recommend having an affair (especially not with your Father-in-law) because you always get caught eventually - right, Mr Hancock?

The raw data and findings from our survey are available on request.