Infidelity isn’t something people like to talk about — much less confess. Does anyone really want to admit cheating on a spouse, especially to a pollster. But the following poll results might help put in perspective the frequency and number of adulterers.

Infidelity statistics
It’s tough to get a handle on how many of us are having affairs, given the inherent secrecy.

• 22 percent of married men have strayed at least once during their married lives.
• 14 percent of married women have had affairs at least once during their married lives.
• Younger people are more likely candidates; in fact, younger women are as likely as younger men to be unfaithful.
• 70 percent of  married women and 54 percent of married men did not know of their spouses’ extramarital activity.
• 5 percent of married men and 3 percent of married women reported having sex with someone other than their spouse in the 1997.
• 22 percent of men and 14 percent of women admitted to having sexual relations outside their marriage sometime in their past.
• 90 percent of Americans believe adultery is morally wrong.
• 50 percent of Americans say President Clinton’s adultery makes his moral standard “about the same as the average married man,” according to a Time-CNN poll.
• 61 percent of Americans thought adultery should not be a crime in the United states; 35 percent thought it should; 4 percent had no opinion.
• 17 percent of divorces in the United States are caused by infidelity.

Source: Associated Press