Everyone has watched or certainly heard of the TV show, Friends with Benefits. Two young friends have each had their fill of trying to make relationships work. But they would each still like to have sex from time to time. The episodes typically revolve around the same sort of interactions seen in romantic comedies despite their efforts to avoid have a real relationship. And, in the end they always have sex. We are wondering, is it possible to be friends with benefits? How often does this happen? And how long do these strictly sexual relationships last? It turns out that someone has looked into the subject. Dred writes about Bed Buddies.

“Friends with benefits.” This is a term used to describe two people who have a sexual arrangement on the side of an otherwise platonic friendship.
How do these types of relationships start? Does being bed buddies get complicated? How do they end? And who really benefits from them?
Curious? We were too. So we surveyed 1,000 Europeans and Americans about the inner workings of being friends with benefits. Here’s what we learned.

According to Dred, 57% of those polled have had a friendship with benefits! Here is the breakdown of those who answered “yes” by gender and whether they are Europeans or Americans.

European women: 37%
European men: 25%
American women: 18%
American men: 17%

It would appear that European women are twice as likely as their American sisters or brothers to have a friend with benefits. However, many of these folks probably reported a series of one night stands which are not really what we are looking for.

How do these non-relationships work out? After all most of us would like happiness, relationship or not and would like to avoid being serial daters.

Dred asked folks if they experienced sexual satisfaction in their friends with benefits relationships. 42% of Europeans said they were satisfied and 37% reported being somewhat satisfied. Americans came in at 51% and 30% for satisfied and somewhat satisfied. Both groups had a +-20% rate of not being sexually satisfied.

The next question was if these non-relationships are more convenient than normal relationships. A big majority of Europeans at 66% said that a friends-with-benefits situation is not more convenient than a standard relationship. On the other side of the Atlantic 58% of Americans say the opposite!

About of third of respondents, male and female said that they wanted a romantic relationship but settled for friends with benefits. However, half of these folks say that sex feels romantic with their partner, they would consider dating and they did become romantically attached.

But how do these friends-with-benefits relationships turn out? Dred reports that of people who both wanted to try this sort of relationship there were several reasons why it ended.

One or the other moved away: 28%
One or the other wanted someone else: 34%
One wanted a relationship and the other did not: 15%
One or the other cheated:  2%

According to Dred, 15% of folks who both wanted to try a friends-with-benefits relationship are still in that relationship. When one person wanted such a relationship and the other consented, 16% report still being friends with benefits.