Posts Tagged ‘marriages’

List of people with the most children
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article lists people who have parented the most children.
Contents
[hide]
• 1 Lists
o 1.1 Mothers
o 1.2 Fathers
• 2 See also
• 3 References
Lists[edit]
Mothers[edit]
This section lists mothers who have borne the most children.
# Children Mother/Couple Notes
69 Mrs. and Mr. Vassilyev (1st wife) Vassilyev and his first wife, whose name is unknown, holds the record for most children a couple has parented. She gave birth to a total of 69 children: sixteen pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets between 1725 and 1765, in a total of 27 births. 67 of the 69 children born were said to have survived infancy.[1][2] (Vassilyev also had six sets of twins and two sets of triplets with a second wife, for another 18 children in only eight births; he fathered a total of 87 children.)
Doubts have been raised about the veracity of the claim.[3]

57 Mrs. and Mr. Yakov Kirillov The first wife of peasant Yakov Kirillov from the village of Vvedensky, Russia, gave birth to 57 children in a total of 21 births. She had four sets of quadruplets, seven sets of triplets and ten sets of twins. All of the children were alive in 1755, when Kirillov, aged 60, was presented at Court.[4]
As with the Vassilyev case, the truth of these claims has not been established, and is indeed, highly improbable.
55 Leontina (née Espinosa) and Gerardo Secunda Albina Leontina Albina (born 1926) married in Argentina in 1943 and gave birth to her 55th registered child in San Antonio, Chile, in 1981, aged 55.[5] She claimed to have 9 more children, but none of them were registered.[6][unreliable source?] Gerardo Secunda Albina (born 1921) stated that and they had five sets of triplets (all boys) before coming to Chile. Eleven children were lost in an earthquake. Only 40, 24 boys and 16 girls, survived.[7]

53 Barbara and Adam Stratzmann It is claimed that Barbara Stratzmann (c. 1448 – 1503) of Bönnigheim, Germany, gave birth to 53 children (38 sons and 15 daughters) in a total of 29 births by 1498. She had one set of septuplets, one set of sextuplets, four sets of triplets and five sets of twins. Nineteen of the children were stillborn, the eldest surviving was eight years old in 1498.[8]
As with the Vassilyev and Kirillov cases above, the survival of any one of the offspring of the alleged multiple births is questionable: as is the likelihood of so many multiple births in an era before fertility drugs.
52 Maddalena Granata Maddalena Granata (born 1839) of the City of Nocera, Italy, who married at age 28, had given birth to 52 living and dead children, 49 being males, by 1886. Dr. de Sanctis, of Nocera, stated that she had 15 sets of triplets.[9][10]

42 Elizabeth and John Mott Elizabeth Mott of Monks Kirby, Warwickshire, married in 1676 and produced 42 live-born children. She died in 1720.[11]

41 Alice Hookes According to the inscription on a gravestone in Conway Church cemetery, Gwynedd, North Wales, Nicholas Hookes (died 1637) was the 41st child of his mother Alice Hookes, but there were no further details.[7]

39 Elizabeth and William Greenhill
Thomas Greenhill was the last child of 39 by his mother Elizabeth (1615–1681) and William Greenhill.[12] The family consisted of 7 sons and 32 daughters.[13] Not only is this a large number of live newborns but unusual in that apart from one pair of twins they were single births.
35 Mrs. and Mr. Harrison Mrs. Harrison, the wife of an undertaker residing in Vere Street, London, gave birth to her 35th child by one husband in 1736.[14]

33 Mary and John Jonas Mary Jonas (1814–1899) gave birth to 33 children, including 15 sets of boy–girl twins.[15] All were christened, but few achieved adulthood. 10 children were still alive when their father John died in 1892.[16]

32 Moddie and Perccell Oliver Mrs. Moddile M. Oliver, aged 50, wife of a Lumberton, NC, sharecropper, was expecting her 33rd child in 1959. At that time, 22 of her children were alive. Whether her 33rd child was born, was not noted. [17]

32 Maria Addolorata Casalini Mrs. Casalini (born 1929) of Brindisi, Italy, married at 17 and gave birth to her 32nd child on November 11, 1970. She had two sets of quadruplets, one of triplets, one of twins and nineteen single births. Only 15 children survived.[18]

32 Madalena and Raimundo Carnauba Madalena Carnauba of Ceilândia, Brazil, married at 13 and gave birth to 32 children, 24 sons and 8 daughters.[19]

32 Maria Benita Olivera Mrs. Olivera (born 1939) of San Juan, Argentina, gave birth to her 32nd child on 31 January 1989. All children were believed to be alive at that time.[20] She was married twice, and during 32 years of her marriages she had a set of triplets (born at age 13) and two sets of twins.[21]

30 Rebecca Town Mrs. Town (1807–1851) of Keighley, Yorkshire, had 30 children, but only one reached age 3.[7]

29 Anna Theresia Pleyl First wife of Martin Pleyel (see fathers), a schoolmaster from Ruppersthal in Lower Austria in the 18th century.[22] Their 24th child was composer Ignaz Pleyel (b. 1757).[23]

28 Mabel Murphy Mrs. Murphy (born 1898) of Lisnaskea, Co. Fermanagh, N. Ireland was reported to have produced 28 children (12 stillborn) in 32 years of marriage by December 1949, but this claim has not been fully substantiated.[24]

27 Glendora Pope Mrs. Pope, the wife of a Idaho carpenter, gave birth to her 27th child in June 1939, at the age of 45. At that time, 14 children were living. All were single births. [25]

27 Marie-Elise (née Chamberland) and Heliodore Cyr Marie-Elise Chamberland and Heliodore Cyr married in 1928 and had 27 children by 1959, all single-births, 19 of them survived to adulthood.[26] Mr. Cyr, a potato farmer from Saint-François-de-Madawaska, New Brunswick,[27] appeared on the TV show I’ve Got A Secret three times – after the births of his 25th, 26th and 27th child respectively.[28]

25 Lapa Piagenti and Giacomo di Benincasa Their 23rd child was Saint Catherine of Siena.[29]

25 Ada Watson Mrs. Watson (1886–1974) of Cambridge gave birth to 25 children, including three sets of twins, during the period 1904–1931. All of the children attained majority.[7]

24 Kathleen Scott Mrs. Scott (b. 4 July 1914) of Dublin gave birth to her 24th child on 9 August 1958. Twenty of her children were still alive in 1990.[20]

24 Marcella S. (née Mills) Big Crow and James M. Big Crow Sr. Marcella Mills-Big Crow (1924–1989) of Pine Ridge, South Dakota had 24 children, including eight pairs of twins. Five children died in infancy.[30]

23 Queen Darejan and King Heraclius II of Georgia
They had a total of 23 children, 13 of whom lived to adulthood.[citation needed]

23 Tabatha Marcum and Silas Mainord Married in 1811, they lived in Overton County, Tennessee and produced 23 children. One of their daughters, Syreana, later became the mother of 17.[31]

23 Grace Bagnato Grace Bagnato and her husband had 23 children; 9 of these were conceived in order to compete for a bequest by a Torontoeccentric, in what became known as the Great Stork Derby.[32]

22 Ursula and Franz Adolf Dietrich von Ingelheim The German Count Franz Adolf Dietrich von Ingelheim (1659–1742) of Mainz and his wife Ursula (1668–1730) had 22 children between 1683 and 1712.[33]

22 Marie Massicotte and Philippe Dontigny Born between 1888 and 1915 at Champlain, Québec; 14 of the children died in infancy. There were no multiple births.[34]

22 Mrs. and Mr. Hostetter Roy Hostetter, a 46-year-old Pennsylvania miner, and his wife, aged 42, announced birth of their 22nd child in May 1941.[35]

22 Mrs. Dick Renata Mrs. Dick Renata, a Maori, of Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, gave birth to her 22nd child in November 1948. Fourteen of her children survived, including the 2nd born, who was 21 and was himself a father.[36]

22 Madeleine and Marce Devaud Madeleine Devaud, wife of a village dairyman of La Gorre, western France, gave birth to her 22nd child, a boy, in March 1952, at the age of 42. The Devaud couple, married for 24 years, had 13 girls and seven boys. Two children died in infancy.[37][38]

22 Mabel Constable Mrs. Constable (born 1920), of Long Itchington, Warwicks, gave birth to 22 children, including a set of triplets and two sets of twins.[39]

22 Margaret McNaught Mrs. McNaught (born 1923), of Balsall Heath, Birmingham, gave birth to 22 children, 12 boys (2 of them died in infancy) and 10 girls, all single births.[7]

22 Sylvester and Mary Hemsing Mary Hemsing (1913-2014) of Rolling Hills, Alberta, Canada, gave birth to 11 boys and 11 girls, as well as one stillborn girl. [40]

22 Alvin and Lucille Miller Mrs. Miller gave birth to her first child at age 17; her last child was born when she was 43. All 22 children lived to adulthood. The family also took in several foster children.[41][42]

22 Unidentified Gypsy woman A 38-year-old Gypsy woman of Lom, Bulgaria, gave birth to her 22nd child in March 1998. She and her husband had no jobs, 17 children lived with them and five were in orphanages.[43]

21 Josephine & Michael Salzo Sr. New Haven Connecticut. The 21 children included the first known surviving set of quadruplets in New Haven CT., triplets, and two sets of twins.[44]

21 Olivia (née Whitmore) and Arthur Guinness
Guinness was an Irish brewer. Only ten of their children lived to adulthood.[45]

21 Anna and Henry Crocker 18 of their children lived to adulthood.[46]

21 Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar This family is the subject of “19 Kids and Counting”. One baby died due to miscarriage. Another one was stillborn. The eldest son “Joshua Duggar” is 26; whom has given Jim Bob and Michelle 3 grand children.[citation needed] The second eldest daughter is currently pregnant with her first child.
21 Edith Hill Mrs. Hill, of Leicester, England, the wife of a postman, gave birth to her 21st child in December 1960, at the age of 46. Her eldest son was 30 by that time and she already had grandchildren. Two of her children died at infancy, the other were nine boys and ten girls.[47]

21 Leonora and Yanosh Nameni Leonora Nameni, of Ostritsa, Hertsa Raion, Chernivtsi Oblast, gave birth to her 21st child in October 2013, at the age of 44, becoming the most prolific mother in Ukraine. Leonora and Yanosh are followers of the Apostolic Christian Church (Nazarene)and do not practice birth control. The Nameni family has 11 sons and 10 daughters, including two sets of twins.[48]

20 Gertrude Louisa Rowe Goodley and George Thomas Jolley Gertrude and George married in 1905 and had 20 children between 1906 and 1932 when Gertrude was aged 46. The family were from the Tolaga Bay area on New Zealand’s North Island.[citation needed]

20 Marie Verrault and Pierre Edouard Cauchon Born between 1853 and 1882 at Château-Richer, Québec, Canada, sixteen of the children died in infancy, and one as a young adult. There were no multiple births.[34]

20 Rose Alma and Roland Letendre The youngest died as a result of birth injury. All the children were born in Drummondville, Quebec. The combined age of the mother (94) and 19 children (72–50) adds up to 1256 years as of August 25, 2012.[49]

20 The mother of Maria Goncales Moreira Not much is known about this case except the fact that she had ten sets of twins. Her daughter also has ten sets of twins (see below).[50]

20 Maria Goncales Moreira Mrs. Moreira of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, gave birth to her tenth set of twins (identical boys) on July 3, 1984. Her other twins were 16 girls and 2 boys. She delivered the first at age 13. Her mother also has ten sets of twins.[50]

20 Jessie Campbell Mrs. Campbell (born 1946) of Struan, Isle of Skye, Scotland, gave birth to her 20th child on 22 January 1990.[51]

20 Julianna and Ernő Lukács Julianna Lukács and her husband, a Hungarian farmer, have six sons and fourteen daughters. They live in Tolna, Hungary, in a mansion farming on 3,336 acres (1,350 ha). The first child was born in 1966 and the last in 1991.[52]

20 Elena and Alexander Shishkin Elena Shishkina (born 1958) of Voronezh Oblast, Russia, gave birth to her 20th child in April 2003, becoming the most prolific mother in Russia; her eldest son was 24 at that time. The Shishkins have 9 sons and 11 daughters, and already had 20 grandchildren by November 2012.[53]

19 Amelia Montpetit and Charles-Napoleon Potvin Starting in 1911, this mother in Western Canada produced 19 children, of which 16 made it to adulthood. The last two children, born in 1933, were fraternal twins.[54]

19 Beatrice and Leonard Collins This Peterborough, Ontario mother gave birth to 19 children, including three sets of twins. At the time of her death in 2010, at age 93, she was survived by 16 children, 50 grandchildren and 54 great-grandchildren.[55][56]

19 Marie Hébert and Jean-Baptiste Brodeur dit Lavigne Born between 1713 and 1739 at Varennes, Québec, eleven of the children died in infancy. There were no multiple births.[34]

19 Susannah (née Annesley) and Samuel Wesley
Ten of their children, three sons and seven daughters, lived to adulthood.[57]

19 Ricardo Silva Silva and Mercedes Henríquez Encina Chilean cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez was the 16th son of the Silva Henríquez family.[58]

19 Margarita and Evgeniy Nikolaev In 1993 they were the most prolific family in Russia. They had 19 children and lived in Velikiye Luki. Margarita Nikolaeva was a tailor and her husband Evgeniy was a carpenter.[59]

19 Pauline Katherine (Hass) Bullough Pauline married John Bullough in 1910 in South Hadley, Massachusetts. The children were born from 1911 to 1937 in single pregnancies. All were born in South Hadley and lived in a farm house in that town. [60]

19 Sima Zalmanov Sima Zalmanov, of Safed, Israel, gave birth to her 19th child in September 2008, at the age of 47. Sima was the principal of the city’s Chabad high school for girls. Sima and her husband were married for 27 years by that time and had produced nine boys and ten girls; their eldest son was 26. Six of the couple’s children were married, and they were waiting for the birth of their eighth grandchild due the next month.[61]

19 Kelly and Gil Bates Friends of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. The family is the subject of United Bates of America.[62]

18 Mrs. and Mr. Feodor Vassilyev (2nd wife)
Vassilyev and his second wife, whose name is also unknown, gave birth to a total of 18 children. She gave birth to six pairs of twins and two sets of triplets. Most of her children were alive by 1782.[63]

18 Barbara (née Schultz) and John Oesch Barbara Schultz Oesch (1803–1881) married John Oesch at the age of 17 and gave birth to eighteen children by February 1849. Fifteen of them survived to adulthood.[64]

18 Mable (née Richardson) and Thomas Norman Mable Richardson and Thomas Norman married in the mid 1920s when she was 16 and he was 21. According to the 1930 Bibb County, Georgia census, Thomas worked as a self-employed contractor and brick mason and Mable was a homemaker. She gave birth to 18 children (twelve boys and six girls) in eighteen confinements during the first half of more than 50-year marriage. All except one survived to adulthood. The African-American couple resided in Macon, Georgia in a two-story home built by Thomas. Thomas died in 1977, followed by Mable in 1984.[citation needed]

18 Shirley (née Schlegel) and James Neel Shirley Neel (1951–2009) of Wamego, Kansas married James Neel in 1969 and had 18 children, 8 boys and 10 girls, one of which died in infancy.[65][unreliable source?]

18 Fatma and Mehmet Saygi Fatma Saygi of Adana, Turkey, gave birth to her sixth set of triplets in 2004, at the age of 28. Eight children from previous pregnancies were alive at that time.[66]

18 Claudia Maria da Silva Claudia Maria da Silva, an unemployed woman from São Paulo, southeast Brazil, gave birth to her 18th child in 2007, aged 40. The father of the newborn girl was only 15 years old, a friend of one of Maria’s sons. Da Silva said she had been aware of contraception methods but chose never to use them, and gave birth to her first child at age 11. Since then she has been pregnant 27 times and has had nine abortions. Of her 18 children, only three were living with her.[67]

18 Livia and Alexandru Ionce Livia Ionce gave birth to her 18th child, a girl, in British Columbia in 2008, at the age of 44 when their other 17 children, nine girls and eight boys, were from 20 months to 23 years old. Ionces immigrated to Canada from Romania in 1990. Alexandru Ionce said he did not know if they would have more children.[68]

18 Unidentified couple from Rehovot
An Israeli woman in her mid-40s gave birth to her 18th child in June 2009, when her eldest child was 21. The woman and her husband are Ultra-Orthodox Jews and have twelve boys and six girls.[69]

18 Nadezhda and Ioann Osyak Nadezhda Osyak of Rostov Oblast, Russia, gave birth to her 18th child, a girl, in July 2009; her eldest son was 20 at that time. The Osyak family has ten sons and eight daughters, and already had five grandchildren by August 2009.[70]

18 Kathryn and Kenneth O’Kane Kathryn and Kenneth O’Kane of Gays Mills, Wisconsin, USA, gave birth to 18 children, nine girls and nine boys; both her eldest and youngest was sons. The O’Kane family had only 1 set of twins who died at birth, a boy and girl, and at the time of Kenneth’s death already had over 43 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren.[71]

17 Edith Thurgood Her and her husband had 17 children, none of which were multiple births. They were all born and raised in the London Borough of Enfield.[citation needed]

17 Juliana of Stolberg
She had five children with her first husband Philip II, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg and twelve with her second husband William I, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg.[citation needed]

17 Elizabeth and Franz Stefanigo They lived in present-day Vojvodina, Serbia. Elizabeth (1837–1922) and Franz Stefanigo (1836–1917) had 17 children (1855–1881) none of them were twins.[citation needed]

17 Maria and Ivan Mendeleev Famous Russian chemist and inventor Dmitri Mendeleev was rthe seventeenth child of his parents. Eight of his siblings died in infancy and one sister died from tuberculosis aged 14.[72]

17 Syreana Mainord and Allen Brock Hull They lived in Overton County, Tennessee and produced 17 children. One of their sons, William Pascal Hull, was the father of politician Cordell Hull.[31]

17 Mary Ann (née Strout) and Isaac Goss They married 1855 in Willunga, South Australia. She gave birth to her 17th child in 1878. Four of her children died in infancy.[73]

17 Ruth and Chalmers Montgomery Mrs. Montgomery gave birth to her 17th child in 1950. 14 of her children were alive at that time.[74]

17 Euna and Glen Boyd Mrs.Boyd had seventeen children, one passed away in infancy. She had mostly unassisted home births in the rural Appalachian mountains. She lived to be 94 years old, only two of her children preceded her in death. She lived in Grundy, Virginia her entire life.[75]

17 Unidentified Iranian couple A 50-year-old Iranian woman gave birth to her 17th child in January 1995, just as her oldest son turned 18.[76]

17 Zynaida and Vladimir Chernenko A family from Rancho Cordova, California, celebrated the birth of their 17th child in 2005. Eleven children were born in Ukraine, before the family moved to the U.S.[77]

17 Unidentified couple from Melbourne A woman from Melbourne who already had 12 children, gave birth to naturally-conceived quintuplets in 2010, at the age of 48. One of the quints died soon after birth.[78]

17 Maria and Vasiliy Chinnickaylo Maria Chinnickaylo of Daugavpils, Latvia, gave birth to her 17th child in February 2012. The Chinnickaylo family lives in the house built by Vasiliy and their eldest sons.[79]

17 Christi Cason Christi Cason of Lake Elsinore, California, gave birth to her 17th child in October 2013, at the age of 42. This was her 15th child together with husband David Cason, a 46-year-old network engineer, whom she married in 1991. The Cason family has ten boys and seven girls.[80] The Casons were featured on the TLC miniseries Kids by the Dozen.

16 Wendy Jeub Wendy Jeub of Monument, Colorado, gave birth to her 16th child in 2011 at the age of 44. It was her 14th child together with husband Chris Jeub, whom she married in 1991.[81] The Jeub family has nine girls and seven boys. The Jeub family was featured on the TLC miniseries Kids by the Dozen.

16 Maria of Spain and Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor
Only one Grandchild reached adulthood Philip III of Spain[citation needed]

16 Maria Theresa and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
13 survived infancy.[citation needed]

16 Brigitte Dillen A family from, Merksem, Antwerp, has gotten a lot of media attention when their 16th child was born in 2008. All 16 children, have a name that ends with ‘y'[citation needed]

16 Florence (née) Bourgeois and John Dooley 16 children, 14 survived infancy. Married in Chicago in 1910, they had nine boys and five girls born between 1912 and 1937. Florence Dooley was profiled in a 1985 Lisle Sun newspaper article for her 90th birthday. She died in 1995 at age 101, and John Dooley died in 1976 at age 91.[82][83]

16 Elizabeth Ann (née Strout) and Joseph Warner 16 children, 13 survived infancy. Married in Willunga, South Australia in 1858. Sister of Mary Ann Strout who married Isaac Goss and had 17 children – see above entry.[73]

16 Mary and John Wagner From Defiance, Ohio, married in 1914; all their children lived well into adulthood and produced 71 grandchildren.[84]

16 Vera and Vyacheslav Lapenko Vera Lapenko of Zelenograd, Russia, gave birth to her 16th child in August 2000, her eldest daughter was 24 at that time. Lapenko has 12 sons and 4 daughters.[85]

16 Angel Adams Twelve of her children lived with her in a motel room. These children have now been put into foster care.[86]

16 Sue and Noel Radford Sixteen children currently, the last being born in November 2012, the oldest being 23 years old at that time. The Radfords are amongst the largest families in modern Britain and support themselves by their family-run bakery. They live in a ten-bedroom converted nursing home.[87]

16 Salli Hilda Kortesalmi (b. Niemelä) and Juho Heikki Kortesalmi of Ranua, Finland Between 1918 and 1942, this couple from Northern Finland had sixteen children. One died as an infant, two in their early teens. The rest survived into adulthood. Very large families were, and still are, not at all uncommon in the Laestadian revivalmovement.[citation needed]

15 Anna of Bohemia and Hungary andFerdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
13 survived infancy. Their children include Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and Charles II, Archduke of Austria. They had 66 grandchildren.[citation needed]

15 Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz andGeorge III of the United Kingdom
13 survived infancy. Their children include Kings George IV of the United Kingdom, William IV of the United Kingdom, and Ernest Augustus I of Hanover.

15 Maria Anna of Bavaria (1551–1608) andCharles II, Archduke of Austria
Their grandson Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor had 16 children, but with 3 different wives[citation needed]

15 Florence and Cornelius (Neil) Sweeney Florence and Neil got married in the summer of 1947 when Florence was 24. That next year they had their first child. They had 14 more and the last being born when Florence was 41. All 15 children survived to adulthood. All lived in Michigan until Neil’s death in 1996 and Florence’s death in 1999.[88]

15 莊(tjong?) Ki Y and Chen Y Jiao (2 nd wife) 15 children, the oldest born April 1951. The 莊 are amongst the largest families in Indonesia and support themselves by their family-run shop. No birth record can be produced to non family member in Indonesia.[citation needed]

15 Sarada Devi and Debendranath Tagore
15 children were born to noted Bengali philosopher and social reformer Debendranath Tagore and his wife Sarada Devi of theJorasanko Tagore family between 1840 and 1861, out of which 13 survived to adulthood. The youngest among them was the Bengali renaissance polymath, Rabindranath Tagore.[89]

14 Nadya Suleman
14 children, including the Suleman octuplets. The first octuplets to survive.[citation needed]

14 Mumtaz Mahal
14 children, the youngest born in 1631. She was the third wife of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal in her memory.[citation needed]

14 Florence (née Fabré) Charlton 14 children, the youngest born in 1965 in San Bernardino, California. She was the wife of Charles Charlton (d. 2005). Her first great-great grandchild was born in 2014.[citation needed]

14 Brenda (née Cornett) Jurevis 14 children, the youngest born in December of 2002 in Chicago, Illinois. She is the wife of Dan Jurevis (m. 1975). She’s had a total of 17 pregnancies, 1 of which was a stillborn and 2 of which were miscarriages. They were all live births. She had 8 boys and 6 girls. She has 8 grandchildren, 5 of which are girls and 3 of which are boys.[citation needed]

Fathers[edit]
This section lists fathers who have fathered the most children, usually with many different women. Men who have parented large numbers of children through medical sperm donation are difficult to record. Numbers in italics are inexact.
# Children Father Notes
860 Ismail Ibn Sharif
Alaouite sultan of Morocco, said to have fathered 525 sons and 342 daughters with multiple wives and concubines.[90]

300–600 Bertold Wiesner
Fertility doctor, used his own sperm to impregnate customers between 1943 and 1962.[91] He was the father of Eva Ibbotson.

210 King Sobhuza II
King of Swaziland, lived 1899–1982; thought to have had 70 wives.[citation needed]

177 Sultan Ibrahim Njoya
King of Bamum in Cameroon, lived 1860–1933, and thought to have had ‘around 600’ wives; he was said to have had 149 children by December 1915.[92]

162+ Ramesses II
Egyptian pharaoh; see also: List of children of Ramesses II.[citation needed]

160+ Ancentus Akuku This Kenyan polygamist, full name Ancentus Ogwella Akuku, known as ‘Danger’, lived 1916–2010; he married ‘more than 100 times’ and had fathered ‘at least 160 children’ when he married his final wife in 2000.[93] An unsubstantiated article from theEast African Standard claimed 210 children: 104 daughters and 106 sons, by some 130 wives.[94]

158 Jack Kigongo Lived in Kateera, Uganda, 1909–2012; he had 20 wives, and when he died aged 103, around 500 grandchildren.[95]

150 Anonymous sperm donor One of the US sperm donors was found to have produced at least 150 children.[96] Inspiration for the 2011 Canadian filmStarbuck and its 2013 American remake Delivery Man.

142 Emperor Minh Mạng
Reported to have had 142 children.[citation needed]

121 Winston Blackmore
Leader of the Mormon fundamentalist sect called the Blackmore/Bountiful Community,[97] fathered children through as many as 25 wives.[98]

106–115 Saud of Saudi Arabia
King Saud, son of Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, lived 1902–1969; according to one source he had 52 sons and about 54 daughters from ‘a wider range of women’ than his father (who only had 22 wives);[99] however, another source credited him with 115.[100]

108+ Fath-Ali Shah Qajar
The second Shah of the Qajar dynasty of Iran, Fath-Ali (1772–1834), had 48 daughters and 60 sons ‘who survived infancy’, as a result of the 160+ marriages by which he had consolidated his control over the country. Many of his descendants went on to become prominent figures.[101]

<100 Augustus John
The Welsh painter is widely reported to have fathered ‘up to 100 children’, mostly outside marriage, although some believe that this figure is greatly exaggerated.[102]

99 Ed Houben Europe's most prolific sperm donor. Advocates the use of natural methods. [103]

94 Ziona Chana
Leader of a polygamist sect in the Mizoram state of India, has 94 children with 39 wives, as well as 33 grandchildren.[104]

93 Muhammad Daad Murad Mohammed Daad Murad Al Balushi, also known as Abu Faisal or 'Bid Daad', originally from Baluchistan but now naturalized in the Ajman, U.A.E., by April 2013 was 67 and was expexting his 94th child.[105] Over all he had 22 wives of whom 17 are still alive, 56 sons and 37 daughters, the eldest being a 38-year-old son and the youngest a three-month-old daughter.[106]

87 Feodor Vassilyev
Feodor Vassilyev, a peasant from Shuya, Russia, had 69 children with his first wife and 18 with second. At least 82 of his kids survived infancy.[63]

49–89 Goel Ratzon
Jewish cult leader and Messiah claimant, born in 1951; in 2010 he reportedly had ‘21 wives’, with whom he had fathered 49 children (CNN data), or ‘more than 30 wives’ and 89 children (Time magazine data). The statistics came to light when he was charged with enslavement and rape.[107][108]

82 Mongkut (Rama IV)
King Mongkut, Thailand’s fourth monarch; he had 32 wives and concubines during his lifetime who produced at least 82 children,[109] one of whom was Chulalongkorn.

77 Chulalongkorn (Rama V) King Chulalongkorn, Thailand’s fifth monarch; he had 92 consorts during his lifetime who produced 77 children,[109] of which 33 were sons and 44 were daughters.
75 Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia
King Abdulaziz, the first monarch of Saudi Arabia, lived 1876–1953; he had 45 recorded sons and about 30 daughters from 22 wives and concubines; by 2001 he had 2,500–3,500 direct descendants.[99]

75 Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Rock and roll singer. 57 confirmed children, possibly as many as 75.[110]

75 Cecil Byran Jacobson
Fertility doctor suspected of fathering as many as 75 children by impregnating patients with his own sperm.[citation needed]

74 Ben Seisler Ben Seisler, who spent three years donating sperm to a Virginia sperm bank to offset law-school expenses, recently learned that his donations have produced 74 children.[111]

73 Buddha Loetla Nabhalai (Rama II)
King Buddha Loetla Nabhalai, Thailand’s second monarch; he had 73 children from 40 women.[109]

72–84 Ramon Revilla
Philippine actor and politician. These are the children known or almost certain to be Revilla's, but there are rumored to be many more, perhaps more than 100.[112][113]

65 Heber C. Kimball
First Counselor of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, fathered children through 17 of his 43 wives.[citation needed]

65 Rulon Jeffs
President of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, fathered children through as many as 75 wives.[114]

60 Warren Jeffs
President of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, fathered children through as many as 70 wives.[114]

57 Brigham Young
President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, fathered children through 16 of his 55 wives.[citation needed]

55 Kangxi Emperor
Chinese emperor, lived 1654–1722; he fathered 35 sons and 20 daughters from numerous wives and concubines.[citation needed]

54+ Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden
Yemeni emigrant to Saudi Arabia, married 22 times and fathered at least 54 children.[115] Osama bin Laden is believed to have been his 17th son.
51 Nangklao (Rama III)
King Nangklao, Thailand’s third monarch; he had 51 children from 37 women.[109]

50 Jean-Bédel Bokassa
Dictator of the Central African Republic, lived 1921–1996; had 17 wives.[citation needed]

58 Gennadij Raivich The neuroscientist Professor Gennadij Raivich, born in 1963, is believed to have fathered 58 children by sperm donation, advertised through unlicensed websites.[116]

46 Joe Jessop By February 2010 was 88 and lived in Short Creek, Utah, a 6,000-strong community of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, fathered 46 children with five wives and had 239 grandchildren.[117]

45 Orson Pratt
Orson Pratt (Sr.), polymath, and an apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, lived 1811–1881; he fathered 45 children through his ten wives.[citation needed]

30–45 Idi Amin
Dictator of Uganda, lived 1925–2003; he had 17 wives.[citation needed]

44 Jesse N. Smith
Jesse Nathaniel Smith, a Mormon pioneer, church leader, colonizer, politician, frontiersman, member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, fathered 44 children through his five wives.[118]

43 Anonymous sperm donor Danish sperm donor, who fathered 43 children at 14 different IVF clinics in 10 different countries, passed on a genetic disorder to at least five children born from IVF procedures. The man was allowed to continue donating sperm, despite Danish national rules restrict donations to 25 times.[119]

43 Philip IV of Spain
He fathered 13 legitimate children through his two wives and is said to have at least 30 illegitimate children with different women of all conditions.[120]

42 Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (Rama I)
King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, Thailand’s first monarch; he had 42 children from 28 women.[109]

42 Lorenzo Snow
President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, fathered children through his 9 wives.[citation needed]

41 Friedrich von Kahlbutz A minor Prussian nobleman, lived 1651–1702; he fathered 11 children by his wife, and 30 by peasant women in his domain.[121] His mummy is preserved in a church in Neustadt in Brandenburg.

40+ Joseph Kony
Ugandan warlord, born in 1961; reported to have 88 ‘wives’.[citation needed]

38 Martin Pleyel Martin Pleyel was a schoolmaster from Ruppersthal in Lower Austria in the 18th century. He had 29 children with his first wife, Anna Theresia Pleyel. Their 24th child was composer Ignaz Pleyel (b. 1757).[122] He had another 9 children with his second wife, Maria Anna Pleyel.[123]

38 Ramon Revilla
Filipino actor and former senator, fathered children through 16 different women.[124] Claims to have fathered up to 72 children.

35+ King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
The present King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, born in 1924; he has fathered at least 35 children to date, by thirteen wives.[125]

34 John Taylor
President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, fathered children through his seven wives.[citation needed]

33 Wilford Woodruff
President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, fathered children through his five (possibly 6) wives.[citation needed]

33+ Dillion "Dillon" Asher
Keeper of 1st toll-gate in Kentucky, near Pineville. Fathered at least 33 children with four women between 1804 and 1845.[citation needed]

32 Yuan Shikai
An important Chinese general and politician, fathered 32 children (17 sons and 15 daughters) through his wife and nine concubines.[126]

32 Albert Emund Barlow A follower of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints living in Utah, he was arrested at 52 for polygamy in 1955.[127] He was said to have fathered 32 children through his three wives.
31 Benjamin Clark A cousin of the explorer William Clark fathered 31 children by his two wives; seven of them died in infancy.[128]

30+ Jonas Savimbi
Angolan politician and guerrilla leader, lived 1934–2002, had fathered 29–31 children by 1999; number of wives not recorded.[129]

30+ Omar Bongo
President of Gabon, lived 1935–2009; number of wives not recorded.[citation needed]

30 Taksin, King of Thonburi Taksin, the King of the Thonburi Kingdom, had 21 sons and 9 daughters.[130]

30 Miles Park Romney
Mormon and great-grandfather of Mitt Romney, fathered 30 children with five wives;[131] he married the last in 1890, just before the 1890 Manifesto.

30 Tom Green
Mormon fundamentalist, fathered children through ten women.[132]

30 Fally Diallo Senegalese Imam El Hadji Fally Diallo has, up to 2014, fathered 30 children with three wives; he campaigns against family planning in Senegal, claiming that it is his God-given duty to multiply.[133]

27 Nathaniel J. Smith
Nathaniel J. Smith of Dayton, Ohio in the United Sates has fathered 12 boys and 15 girls with 17 partners as of 2013.[134]

26 Henry I of England
3 legitimate children by his first wife, 23 acknowledged illegitimate children.[citation needed]

26 Peter Rolfe
Peter Rolfe of the Isle of Wight has fathered 14 boys and 12 girls with 15 partners as of 2014.[135]

26 Michael Redman
Michael Redman of England has fathered 13 boys and 13 girls as of 2014.[136]

26 Kouayou Kouayou
Kouayou Kouayou of the Ivory Coast has fathered 26 children with 4 wives as of 2014.[137]

25 John James Clark Clark fathered 25 children by two wives, possibly 27.[citation needed]

25 Dr. Samuel Annesley
Susanna Wesley was the 25th of his children.[citation needed]

25 Toby Liston Liston fathered 25 children by two wives; the 23rd child became world heavyweight boxing champion, Charles ‘Sonny’ Liston.[citation needed]

24 Desmond Hatchett
Desmond Hatchett of Tennessee in the United States had fathered 24 legal children as of 2012. A court ruled that media reports of an inflated count of 30 children were not correct.[138]

24 Robert I, Duke of Parma
Fathered 24 children with his two wives, 12 from each marriage.[citation needed]

24 Desmond Hatchett Fathered 24 children, according to Knox County, Tennessee Juvenile Court records. A Los Angeles Times article and Memphis television station WREG erroneously reported that he fathered 30 children.[139]

24 Osama bin Laden
The infamous terrorist fathered 24 children by five wives. See Bin Laden family.[140]

24 Brady Williams Fathered 24 children, with five wives all made by polygamy, 14 daughters and 10 sons.[citation needed]

23 King Mswati III
King of Swaziland, born 1968; he has 14 wives (as of 2012).[citation needed]

22+ Jacob Zuma
President of South Africa, born in 1942; he has fathered at least 22 children to date, with five wives and some others out of wedlock; some sources claim 24 children.[citation needed]

22 Joseph Smith Jessop
Co-founder of Hildale, Utah; fathered 22 children, 14 by his first wife and 8 by his second wife.[citation needed]

23 Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Ruler of Dubai, born in 1949; he has 23 officially acknowledged children, nine sons and fourteen daughters from a total of 6 wives.[citation needed]

22 Ed Rudolph Fathered 22 children, one of them being 3-time gold winning Olympic athlete Wilma Rudolph.[141]

22 Richard Lovell Edgeworth
An Anglo-Irish politician, who fathered 22 children with four wives.[citation needed]

22 James II of England
The children were born between 1660 and 1692. Of these, 15 were legitimate: eight by his first wife, Anne Hyde, and seven by his second wife, Mary of Modena.[citation needed]

22 Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland
English nobleman and grandfather of kings Edward IV and Richard III. He had 14 of his children with his second wife Joan Beaufort, granddaughter of King Edward III.[citation needed]

22 Nanu Ram Jogi Indian farmer, fathered 22 children with 4 wives. He was said to be the world’s oldest father when he fathered his 21st child at the age of 90,[142] and in 2012 he claimed to have fathered another child at the age of 96,[143] apparently equalling another Indian, Ramjit Raghav, as the oldest father.
21 John VI of Nassau-Dillenburg
John VI, Count of Nassau in Dillenburg, lived 1536–1606; he fathered 21 children (9 sons and 12 daughters) with three wives. (There were also three stillborn sons.)[citation needed]

21 Carlos Gracie
Martial arts practitioner, lived 1902–1994; number of wives not recorded.[citation needed]

20 Charlemagne
Emperor of the Franks, lived 742–814; fathered 20 children with three wives and five concubines, between 757 and 807.[citation needed]

20 Johann Sebastian Bach
German composer, lived 1685–1750; fathered children with two wives.[citation needed]

20 Henry Mosley born 1904 in Template:Macon, Mississippi.He had about 20 children with three wives and some concubines and about four children didn't live to see adulthood[citation needed]

17 Wun Hoke Kwa
Taiwanese import/export merchant who lived in Burma and later immigrated to the United States of America, lived 1909-1999; He fathered 17 children with two wives, who were sisters. All living children now reside in New York City and Toronto.[citation needed]

16 Shah Jahan
The fifth Mughal emperor of India, He fathered 14 children from his wife Mumtaz Mahal and two others from his other two wives.[citation needed]

Some facts about Women across the World:

51% of Women Are Now Living Without Spouse

By SAM ROBERTS (ref:The New York Times)

Published: January 16, 2007

For what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one, according to a New York Times analysis of census results.

“A lot of my friends are divorced or single or living alone. I know a lot of people in their 30s who have roommates.”

 

More American women are living without a husband than with one. How do you think this trend will shape social and workplace policies?

“A gentleman asked me to marry him and I said no. I told him, ‘I’m just beginning to fly again, I’m just beginning to be me. Don’t take that away.’”
ELISSA B. TERRIS
Divorced in 2005 after being married for 34 years.

In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.

Coupled with the fact that in 2005 married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time, the trend could ultimately shape social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits.

Several factors are driving the statistical shift. At one end of the age spectrum, women are marrying later or living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods. At the other end, women are living longer as widows and, after a divorce, are more likely than men to delay remarriage, sometimes delighting in their newfound freedom.

In addition, marriage rates among black women remain low. Only about 30 percent of black women are living with a spouse, according to the Census Bureau, compared with about 49 percent of Hispanic women, 55 percent of non-Hispanic white women and more than 60 percent of Asian women.

In a relatively small number of cases, the living arrangement is temporary, because the husbands are working out of town, are in the military or are institutionalized. But while most women eventually marry, the larger trend is unmistakable.

“This is yet another of the inexorable signs that there is no going back to a world where we can assume that marriage is the main institution that organizes people’s lives,” said Prof. Stephanie Coontz, director of public education for the Council on Contemporary Families, a nonprofit research group. “Most of these women will marry, or have married. But on average, Americans now spend half their adult lives outside marriage.”

Professor Coontz said this was probably unprecedented with the possible exception of major wartime mobilizations and when black couples were separated during slavery.

William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington, described the shift as “a clear tipping point, reflecting the culmination of post-1960 trends associated with greater independence and more flexible lifestyles for women.”

“For better or worse, women are less dependent on men or the institution of marriage,” Dr. Frey said. “Younger women understand this better, and are preparing to live longer parts of their lives alone or with nonmarried partners. For many older boomer and senior women, the institution of marriage did not hold the promise they might have hoped for, growing up in an ‘Ozzie and Harriet’ era.”

Emily Zuzik, a 32-year-old musician and model who lives in the East Village of Manhattan, said she was not surprised by the trend.

“A lot of my friends are divorced or single or living alone,” Ms. Zuzik said. “I know a lot of people in their 30s who have roommates.”

Ms. Zuzik has lived with a boyfriend twice, once in California where the couple registered as domestic partners to qualify for his health insurance plan. “I don’t plan to live with anyone else again until I am married,” she said, “and I may opt to keep a place of my own even then.”

Linda Barth, a 56-year-old magazine editor in Houston who has never married, said, “I used to divide my women friends into single friends and married friends. Now that doesn’t seem to be an issue.”

Sheila Jamison, who also lives in the East Village and works for a media company, is 45 and single. She says her family believes she would have had a better chance of finding a husband had she attended a historically black college instead of Duke.

“Considering all the weddings I attended in the ’80s that have ended so very, very badly, I consider myself straight up lucky,” Ms. Jamison said. “I have not sworn off marriage, but if I do wed, it will be to have a companion with whom I can travel and play parlor games in my old age.”

Carol Crenshaw, 57, of Roswell, Ga., was divorced in 2005 after 33 years and says she is in no hurry to marry again.

“I’m in a place in my life where I’m comfortable,” said Ms. Crenshaw, who has two grown sons. “I can do what I want, when I want, with whom I want. I was a wife and a mother. I don’t feel like I need to do that again.”

Similarly, Shelley Fidler, 59, a public policy adviser at a law firm, has sworn off marriage. She moved from rural Virginia to the vibrant Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C., when her 30-year marriage ended.

“The benefits were completely unforeseen for me,” Ms. Fidler said, “the free time, the amount of time I get to spend with friends, the time I have alone, which I value tremendously, the flexibility in terms of work, travel and cultural events.”

Among the more than 117 million women age 15 and older, according to the marital status category in the Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey, 63 million are married. Of those, 3.1 million are legally separated and 2.4 million said their husbands were not living at home for one reason or another.

That brings the number of American women actually living with a spouse to 57.5 million, compared with the 59.9 million who are single or whose husbands were not living at home when the survey was taken in 2005.

Some of those situations, which the census identifies as “spouse absent” and “other,” are temporary, and, of course, even some people who describe themselves as separated eventually reunite with their spouses.

Over all, a larger share of men are married and living with their spouse — about 53 percent compared with 49 percent among women.

“Since women continue to outlive men, they have reached the nonmarital tipping point — more nonmarried than married,” Dr. Frey said. “This suggests that most girls growing up today can look forward to spending more of their lives outside of a traditional marriage.”

Pamela J. Smock, a researcher at the University of Michigan Population Studies Center, agreed, saying that “changing patterns of courtship, marriage, and that we are living longer lives all play a role.”

“Men also remarry more quickly than women after a divorce,” Ms. Smock added, “and both are increasingly likely to cohabit rather than remarry after a divorce.”

The proportion of married people, especially among younger age groups, has been declining for decades. Between 1950 and 2000, the share of women 15-to-24 who were married plummeted to 16 percent, from 42 percent. Among 25-to-34-year-olds, the proportion dropped to 58 percent, from 82 percent.

“Although we can help people ‘do’ marriage better, it is simply delusional to construct social policy or make personal life decisions on the basis that you can count on people spending most of their adult lives in marriage,” said Professor Coontz, the author of “Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage.”

Besse Gardner, 24, said she and her boyfriend met as college freshmen and started living together last April “for all the wrong reasons” — they found a great apartment on the beach in Los Angeles.

“We do not see living together as an end or even for the rest of our lives — it’s just fun right now,” Ms. Gardner said. “My roommate is someone I’d be thrilled to marry one day, but it just doesn’t make sense right now.”

Ms. Crenshaw said that some of the women in her support group for divorced women were miserable, but that she was surprised how happy she was to be single again.

“That’s not how I grew up,” she said. “That’s not how society thinks. It’s a marriage culture.”

Elissa B. Terris, 59, of Marietta, Ga., divorced in 2005 after being married for 34 years and raising a daughter, who is now an adult.

“A gentleman asked me to marry him and I said no,” she recalled. “I told him, ‘I’m just beginning to fly again, I’m just beginning to be me. Don’t take that away.’ ”

“Marriage kind of aged me because there weren’t options,” Ms. Terris said. “There was only one way to go. Now I have choices. One night I slept on the other side of the bed, and I thought, I like this side.”

She said she was returning to college to get a master’s degree (her former husband “didn’t want me to do that because I was more educated than he was”), had taken photography classes and was auditioning for a play.

“Once you go through something you think will kill you and it doesn’t,” she said, “every day is like a present.”

Ariel Sabar, Brenda Goodman and Maureen Balleza contributed reporting.

Correction: February 14, 2007

A front-page article and chart on Jan. 16 about the rising number of women in the United States living without spouses referred imprecisely to ages of the women included in theCensus Bureau survey that was the basis of the finding. The women were 15 and older, not over 15.

 

Marital Sex Statistics

Who’s Doing It and How Often?

By Sheri & Bob Stritof, About.com Guides

 

Although we don’t recommend comparing your sex life to what others consider to be normal, it can be interesting to see how often other couples have intercourse.

Durex Sexual Wellbeing Gloval Survey — Sexual Satisfaction (2011) Highlights:

In 2011, the Durex survey asked about the frequency of sex versus people’s satisfaction levels. When looking at both scores, Japan was among the lowest, but the U.S. and U.K. were lower than many other countries. There is also a “range of activities chart” to view.

  • “Satisfaction with what we do ‘in the bedroom’ is mediocre … we’re not as happy as we could be or want to be.”
  • “Almost 2/3 of us don’t feel we have sex often enough.”
  • “Half believe our sex lives lack excitement & variety.”

Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey — Sexual Satisfaction (2010) Highlights:

  • 44% “are fully satisfied with their sex lives.”
  • 48% “usually orgasm. Globally, twice as many men (64%) as women regularly have orgasms.”
  • “Those over 65 are still having sex more than once a week.”
  • “Mutual respect plays a vital role in a satisfying sex life. Eighty two per cent of us who are sexually satisfied say they feel respected by our partner during sex. Thirty nine per cent are looking for more love and romance, 36% would like more quality time alone with their partner, 31% would like more fun and better communication and intimacy with their partner and 29% a higher sex drive. Thirty seven per cent want to feel less stressed out and tired.”

Durex Survey (2003) Highlights:

  • People have sex an average of 127 times a year.
  • Three quarters of those polled are happy with their sex lives.
  • Eastern Europeans (Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Russians) are the most sexually active (150).
  • David Beckham was chosen as the sexiest man. George Clooney and Ben Affleck round out the top three.
  • Jennifer Lopez was chosen as the sexiest woman. Catherine Zeta Jones came in second. Halle Berry and Britney Spears tied for third place.
  • 45% of those taking the survey reported having a one night stand.
  • Those in Thailand, China, and Vietnam were the most contented with their sex life.
  • Fins and Russians were the least happy.
  • Americans were low on the frequency list in 2003 at 118 times per year.
  • The three countries with the lowest sexual frequency were Sweden (102), Maylasia (100), and Singapore (96).
  • 48% of women admitted to faking an orgasm.

Durex Survey (2001) Highlights:

  • Americans appear to have the most sex at 132 times a year, with the Russians close behind at 122 times a year, the French at 121, and the Greeks at 115.
  • The countries with the lowest frequency of sex are Japan (37 times per), Malaysia (62) and China (69).
  • Couples living together report having sex 146 times per year.
  • Married couples make love 98 times per year.
  • Single folks are having sex the least at 49 times a year.
  • Four percent of the respondents to the survey claim to have sex daily.
  • 57% say they have sex at least once per week.
  • “People around the world would rather go out with their friends than have sex. More than a fifth (22%) choose their peers rather than having sex with a partner (19%), while a further 10% prefer to either play sport or go shopping.”

 

It’s Men Who are the Surplus Goods – New Straits Times
 
FOR every 100 women who are not married in Malaysia, there are 130 unmarried men. It is men who are surplus goods on the marriage market in this country, not women.

So how does nikah misyar as proposed by certain quarters help to solve the purported social problem of unmarriedwomen and divorcees? This is a solution in search of a problem.

Check the 2000 survey on never married population aged 15 years and above issued by the Statistics Department. The problem in Malaysia is not just a surplus of unmarried men. The bigger problem is likely to be that many of these unmarried men are actually unmarriageable.

The misrepresentation of social problems to justify men’s lust for multiple sexual partners is not a new tactic. This reminds me of a similar ruckus some 10 years ago when certain religious figures justified polygamy because there were purportedly 14 women to every one man in Malaysia! Yet another misconceived social ill that needed to be solved by extending men’s privileges.

Any right thinking person would immediately conclude this as an impossibility unless Malaysia practised male infanticide or sex-selective abortion as in certain Asian countries against female foetuses. The Statistics Department corrected this gross error. And yet the media, and radio Ws for years, went on quoting this statistic to justify polygamy. And it even spread to Indonesia with advocates of polygamy there using the same women to men ratio!

The fact is there are slightly more men than women in Malaysia, and this is considered normal. Women exceed men only in the 65 years and above age group because women live longer. So if sex ratio is the justification for polygamy, then men should only be allowed to marry the surplus women in that age group.

The bigger concern in Malaysia is the seriously disproportionate sex ratio of unmarried citizens. Almost a third of men are surplus goods on the marriage market. This is not difficult to explain. A country that practises polygyny (one husband, many wives) will skew the marriage market. All things being equal, when one man marries twowomen, he deprives another man of a chance at marriage. When he marries three women, two other men aredeprived; when he marries four, three other men do not marry.

So the problem does not lie with women, but with men who want to marry more than one wife in order to legitimise their lust for multiple sexual partners. It is not just women, but other men are also discriminated in the hazardous practice of polygyny.

The problem in Malaysia is compounded because we are still a traditional patriarchal society where women areexpected to marry up. Thus men with money, education and skills will get their choice of women. Men with little money, education and skills are more likely to remain unmarried because society disapproves of women who marry men “beneath” them, and some of our religious leaders believe it is haram for men to be househusbands.

Unless this social value changes given the reality that women are increasingly bettereducated than men, and that there are men who are happy and willing to be househusbands, the opportunities for marriage for men, andwomen, will decrease further.

We all know what happens in societies where men outnumber women disproportionately; where unmarried menare actually unmarriageable because they are poor, unskilled and uneducated. They form an underclass with no strong social bonds who are more likely than other males to turn to vice and violence.

So if the logic of misyar marriage is to be offered as a solution, then the specific problem that it should address is really the surplus of unmarried and unmarriageable men. The outcome then is to legitimise sex among single men and women who for whatever reason are not able to marry, not because they don’t’want to but because they cannot afford it, because the women earn more than men and therefore are not sekufu (of the same class and background), because it is haram for men to be househusbands.

It could be a workable, satisfying relationship between two willing partners who could still choose to marry when circumstances change.

But of course we know that in practice, misyar marriage more often than not leads to abuse and exploitation ofwomenIn many cases, it is nothing more than legitimised prostitution. In poverty stricken Muslim communities, rich Gulf Arab men are known to fly in, contract a misyar marriage in order to have legitimate sex with young girls, pay money to the girls, or more likely to the parents who sold their daughters to these old men, and then fly out until the next visit, and the process repeats itself. Indonesia is already one target country of such marriages.

The practice actually allows men to have sex with women without feeling guilty that they have committed the sin of zinc. In research done in some Arab countries, most of the men in misyar marriages are already married. Often they are men on vacation or are working abroad, or in a different city, who have left their wives and children behind.

Is it any wonder that women and many fair-minded men are up in arms against the legitimisation of this practice? It reeks of deceit and adultery, two ingredients that will doom a marriage.

The discussion on misyar marriage raises the issue why society goes into a panic over unmarried women. Why notover unmarried men? Has anyone done a survey comparing the socio-economic status of unmarried men andwomen and their levels of well-being? Look at the single women around you. They are more likely to be better educated, financially independent, happier, responsible citizens and loving family members than unmarried men.

If you put together the statistics of young unmarried men in drug rehabilitation centres, juvenile homes, prisons, criminal gangs and those out in the streets aimlessly, you get a vivid picture of the underclass being formed. The solution is not to get such men married off, but how do we change our upbringing and education of boys to turn them into responsible citizens and caring family members, and attractive to women.

If our society continues to believe that polygamy is a man’s right, that men must always be leaders and be superior to women, men must always be providers, that being a househusband is haram, then the statistic for an underclass of unmarriageable men in this country is likely to grow.

In the past, women needed to marry in order to survive. But today, when women are educated and financially independent, being a wife is nolonger the one ticket to happinessand well-being. You can actually lead a full and happy life without marriage.

In fact, in a society where religion is used to justify a man’s right to four wives, to demand obedience, to beat his wife, to get sex on demand, to divorce his wife at will, marriage for many Muslim women, is an inherently high-risk and unstable institution. And now a proposal to legitimise illicit sex through legal action, specially for married men with unmarried women!

Is it any wonder that the divorce rate among Muslims is many times higher than non-Muslims? And yet our leaders wring their hands when women are marrying late or not at all, when they are having fewer children, or not. at all. The criticism is always. on women, as if the fault lies with them. The focus is on preserving marriage as an institution, no matter what, rather than building strong, happy, healthy and lasting relationships.

The reality is that increasing numbers of women, while believing in marriage, reject still the traditional model of the man being leader and provider to whom obedience is due, while the woman is the subservient and inferior other half who is on 24/7 duty as wife, mother, cook, cleaner, nurse… and for many, a co-provider as well, without whose income the family cannot survive.

We all believe in family. Let’s get real in analysing why families break down, why women marry late, if at all, why there are many more unmarried men than women, why men are umnarriageable, instead of offering unwanted solutions to misconceived problems.

and many more articles on women and their lifetime partners men..laterlah…

Number of divorces rises by 105pc

2010/09/11 (ref:NST Online)

MARRIAGES are breaking down faster than they are being built. The divorce rates in Malaysia are rising sharply.

In 2002, for every 9.6 marriages registered, there was one divorce. Last year, in every 6.1, there was one.

Researcher John Emmanuel Kiat said while the number of marriages had increased by 21 per cent (153,318 to 199,586) from 2002 to last year, the number of divorces had gone up by as much as 105 per cent (16,013 to 32,763) during the same period.


Kiat, a Statistics and Cognition tutor in HELP University College, described the jump as “statistically significant”.

“The question is, would you consider this rise big enough to be regarded as a problem?”

Dr Anjli Doshi-Gandhi of the National Population and Family Development Board said the rising rates could signify a turn in the public’s perception of the marriage institution.


“Those days, being divorced was embarrassing and families lost face. Now, people are more open. Times have changed.

“Marriages must be strengthened. We don’t want what’s happening in developed countries, where divorce rates are very high, to happen here.”

The board, she added, counselled 700 to 800 troubled couples a year.


Psychologist Charis Wong pointed out the challenges in marriages today.

In self-arranged marriages, many young Malaysian men and women adopt an unrealistic, Western-style conceptualisation of love strongly influenced by the media, she said.

These couples enter into marriage with intense, passionate feelings but without exploring their beliefs and values about marriage.

They focused so much on the romantic aspect of love that they forgot that real love must be accompanied by commitment, which involved hard work by both parties, said Wong.

“The moment a marriage becomes challenging, they become disillusioned, frustrated and give up easily.”

Wong recounted the many pending divorce cases she saw petitioned at the Kuala Lumpur family court when she was a practising litigation lawyer.

She said she was saddened by the “long list of petitions for divorce, the majority of which were from young couples in their 20s or 30s”.

The National Registration Department registered 2,706 divorces among non-Muslims in 2002, which subsequently climbed to 5,647 last year.

Between 2006 and last year, the rates mostly stagnated at about 5,000 a year.

However, seven months into this year, there were already 7,428 cases registered, way higher than years before.

There was an appreciable rise in the number of divorces among Chinese and Indians this year, said Universiti Malaya’s Associate Professor Dr Tey Nai Peng.

“The high ratio of divorce over the number of marriages is a cause for concern. The rising rate may be a contributory factor to falling fertility.”

As for the Muslims, the Department of Islamic Development recorded 27,116 divorces last year, up from 13,937 in 2002. Over the years, the upward trend has been quite consistent.

The divorce rate was still much higher among Muslims compared with non-Muslims, with the former making up more than 82 per cent of total divorces, said Tey.

Divorce, while not completely free from stigma, was at least an option for women and a better alternative than an abusive relationship, said Wong.

“In traditional marriages, men and women had very specific, defined roles.

“When a man fails to carry out his duty and responsibility to his wife, the wife often does not see divorce as an option because of the stigma and hardship that will follow.

“On the other hand, when a wife fails to fulfil her duty to her husband in taking care of his domestic needs, she stands to be corrected and even punished by him and his family.

“Trapped in these inflexible roles, men and women may remain married, but unhappy as a couple.

“In today’s marriage, however, both husband and wife need to accommodate and adjust to the changing role of women; from their traditional role as a child-bearer and homemaker to someone who is capable of taking over many roles previously in the husband’s domain.”

Read more: Number of divorces rises by 105pc http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/06mar1/Article/#ixzz0zIUIqRdy

Ramli like to introduce from today at pramleeelvis BLOG on “facts n data”
1st news:
Fact: why there are so many Muslim divorces in Selangor everyday…
Datas: about 5 to 7 divorces reported everyday.so for 1 year ie.7 x 365 days = 2555
divorces….
Impact: 2555 broken homes and many thousands children are effected and soon their future will become disturbed and without parental love
Consequences: Muslim families become disrupted and children can become problem child and so many other bad effects…or social problems…
Revolusi Aksi (action for results)
reduce rate of divorces by educating right knowledge to young couples..to stay in love and married forever…