More than a third of Americans admitted to having had sex in public places to YouGov in 2015, implying that the practice occurs much more often than the social taboos around it indicate. 36% of respondents admitted that they had done it at least once. Thus, public sex is a recurrent theme among survey responses.
But where do people have sex? Cars may predominate in some surveys, but parks, beaches, balconies, offices, parking lots, and even stairwells pop up in published surveys and open responses. The people seeking out best places to have sex outdoors may very well think that a recommended list will follow; this article and the research that it entails is not that. Instead, this is a study of where people say they chose to have their sex, based on the survey responses.
What Survey Data Says About Public Locations
However, the phrasing of the questions and the sample sizes of the surveys are such that these numbers are not necessarily to be taken as an absolute measure for the ranking of locations, but some trends can be noticed in this data.
In a survey of 1,000 Americans and 1,000 Europeans, public parks have been reported at just under 17%, beaches at 13%, public restrooms at 9%, workplaces at 7%, movie theaters at close to 5%, and elevators at below 3%.
Adam & Eve’s survey for 2022 which included only the respondents who reported pleasure from the act of having sex in public places gives parked cars at 46%, woods at 26%, parks at 20%, beaches at 18%, and workplaces and public bathrooms at 12%.
Finally, a survey carried out in France among 1,113 adult participants showed that 66% of the people involved had had sexual activities in a car, 61% in nature, 38% on a beach or in the sea, and 16% on a balcony or in front of a window with curtains open.
What emerges is that people seem to prefer public sex spots which provide some level of seclusion while remaining away from the home.
Balcony: Private Property, Public View
Balconies defy the distinction between private and public spaces because they belong to private property but can afford views of the street, courtyard, or other balconies. This is probably the reason why it occurs in the list alongside other more explicitly public locations. Searches related to sex on balcony refer precisely to the confusion between private property and public view.
In the French survey mentioned earlier, 16% of participants reported having sex on balconies or in front of an open window. This statistic comes from 1,113 respondents between 18 and 69 years old participating in an online survey in 2013, thus, it represents historical data, not an ongoing situation.
Private property does not necessarily make an activity legal if it is observable. American indecent exposure laws are complex and confusing but tend to have provisions concerning the knowledge or expectation of observation even on private property.
Private property does not necessarily make an activity legal if it can be observed. American indecent exposure laws are complex and confusing, but they tend to include provisions concerning the knowledge or expectation of observation even on private property.
This is why balconies make excellent examples of why a list of places to have sex in public can be misleading: the border between what is perceived as private and what is not can be thinner than it seems.
Stairs and Stairwells: Common in Stories, Harder to Quantify
Stairwells appear in anecdotal references frequently enough to be included, although not often enough to give any specific percentage.
As seen in the 2019 survey conducted in Ottawa referred to above, 34.2% of the participants reported having had sex in public spaces in the city while 18% wished they had, with parks and parking lots being the main open-ended responses while stairs at the back of the Parliament was one of those locations. In a similar manner, a survey done by Canadian Living offered an anecdote related to stairwells in an apartment building.
Although this does not provide a specific percentage on how often stairwells appear in public sexual activity, it is sufficient enough to show the presence of staircases among other responses.
Stairwells tend not to be destinations; they are usually places to travel between one area and another. There are few reasons for someone to be there unless they have another reason to be in the building.
That is not to say that the stairwell does not appear in any discussion of best places to have sex outdoors. It simply does not show up in the same category as the other locations: not enough data from these sources indicates that a significant percentage of the population would choose the stairwell as the best place to have sex in public.
Parking Lots and Garages: The Car Changes the Equation
Compared to the stairwell, parking areas feature far more consistently across datasets.
Superdrug Online Doctor’s survey found that, in general, Americans and Europeans alike ranked parking garages above elevators, and Belgians mentioned parking lots or public garages more often than any other location. In the same vein, the Ottawa survey found parks and parking lots to be the most common themes in the open-ended responses.
It is worth noting that, in many cases, sex in parking lot actually refers to an activity that takes place inside a vehicle. This is why, in the U.S. survey, parked cars received 46% of the enjoyment votes.
A car provides a degree of separation from the outside world, but it is not an impenetrable barrier. If the car is in a place visible to the public, it is subject to the same laws as any other location. Depending on the jurisdiction, exposure in a vehicle could still be illegal or indecent.
This is why sex in parking lot should not be considered a safer option simply because the participants are inside a vehicle. Cameras, pedestrians, employees, and other people in adjacent vehicles can all observe an activity taking place in a parking garage.
Cars Are One of the Most Consistent Survey Answers
One of the most consistent answers across datasets is cars.
In the French survey, 66% of respondents had engaged in sexual activity in a car, compared to 16% who had done so on a balcony or in front of a window with open curtains. In the U.S. survey, parked cars also feature first, with respondents enjoying the location 46% of the time.
This is not to say that a car is one of the best places to have sex outdoors in any legal or safety sense, merely that a vehicle is frequently a factor in the decision and is often considered a compromise between spontaneity and discretion.
It is worth noting that the survey responses do not consider the location of the car. A vehicle on private property with visual privacy is a completely different legal situation than one in a public garage, on the street, at a beach lot, or in a park.
Another factor is visibility from outside the vehicle. Windows, lighting, nearby traffic, security cameras, and pedestrians can all affect how private the setting actually is. For that reason, cars appear frequently in survey data on public sex, but the level of privacy they provide depends heavily on where the vehicle is parked and how exposed it is to the surrounding area.
Beaches, Parks and Nature Lead Many Outdoor Surveys
Excluding the car, the next location to mention is an outdoor one.
Superdrug’s 2,000-person survey ranked parks first and beaches second among places where people had already had sex and, in fact, as the two most desired locations for future activities. Adam & Eve’s data is similar, with woods at 26%, parks at 20%, and beaches at 18%.
This illustrates why the best places to have sex outdoors tend to center around beaches, woods, or parks: they provide a sense of distance from people, even if not always visual privacy.
It is not impossible for people to appear unexpectedly, however: trails can become popular, beaches have patrols, and parks have families, workers, cameras, and set hours.
This is an important consideration when attempting to distinguish between places to have sex in public and those where no one else is likely to see the participants.
Offices, Bathrooms and Other Semi-Public Spaces
Not all the locations where people have sex are outdoors. Superdrug’s data mentions 9% having chosen public restrooms and 7% offices.
The U.S. survey has similar figures, with both workplaces and public bathrooms at 12% and movie theaters also included. They illustrate another aspect of the activity: the fact that a place does not have to be open to the public to be considered a venue for having sex in public.
They also point to a trend in the data: that the most-mentioned locations for having sex in public are not all large, open places. Instead, they involve a degree of separation from other people that lasts only as long as the illusion lasts.
Survey Methodology and Data Limitations
It bears mentioning that this article is not presenting any new BangStars survey data. Instead, the findings are based on comparison between published sets of numbers, which is why the percentages should not be taken together as a whole.
YouGov’s 2015 survey of sexual activity in public places focused on the United States, finding that 36% of Americans admitted to the behavior. Superdrug’s Online Doctor used a sample of 1,000 from both Americans and Europeans. The French survey was conducted online with 1,113 people between the ages of 18 and 69.
The numbers were gathered at different points in time, from different countries, using slightly different language, sampling techniques, and questions about whether the respondents were referring to actual events, preferred locations, or fantasies.
Legal, Privacy and Consent Considerations
One of the complications of the places to have sex in public that people find most exciting is the presence of unwilling observers.
Indecent-exposure and public-indecency laws in the United States are highly variable, according to FindLaw. Definitions can vary widely between states, and statutes might refer to sexual activity in public places as well as to indecent exposure in a place where other people are likely to see it. Additionally, punishments can vary significantly depending on the jurisdiction.
The safest assumption is that illumination, a car, an unoccupied staircase, or private property are not reliable defenses against charges of indecent exposure or public indecency. Anyone who wishes to determine the legality of an activity at a specific location should consult the state, country, or local laws pertinent to the area rather than a generalized article.
This is not to mention consent from anyone other than the participants; however, a complication that arises when considering the best places to have sex outdoors.
FAQs
Is having sex in public illegal?
It can, though. In America, it’s illegal in most cases and can be charged as public indecency, public lewdness, indecent exposure, or disorderly conduct. It just depends on where you are, since each state has its own laws and punishments.
What are the most common places people have sex in public?
Cars, Parks, Beaches, Wooded Areas, Workplaces and Public Bathrooms are recurring entries in the questionnaires. Indeed, according to Adam & Eve’s 2022 survey, parked cars are at the top of the list, while Superdrug’s research on the American-European perspective emphasizes the popularity of parks and beaches.
Is sex on a balcony considered public?
It can be an issue if the balcony is visible to other people. The French survey discovered that sex on balcony or in front of open curtains was reported by 16% of its respondents, but that does not mean that balcony sex is not in the public eye.
