text: Smartphone use may be to blame for a drop in the number of times couples are having sex each month, a leading expert has suggested. Research has revealed that the frequency with which Britons are having sex has been in decline since the emergence of the internet. It comes after Professor David Spiegelhalter, a statistician at Cambridge University, revealed in a new book how a typical heterosexual couple was now having sex three times a month. Research has revealed that the frequency with which Britons are having sex has been in decline since the emergence of the internet (file picture) This was compared to four times a month in 2000 and five times a month in 1990, according to research published in Prof Spiegelhalter's book Sex By Numbers. According to the Daily Telegraph he told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme: 'We used to have a very big separation between our public lives and our private lives - now they are so mixed up and integrated. 'People are checking their emails all the time, you do not have the same sort of quiet empty time that there used to be.' In his book, Prof Spiegelhalter pointed to a number of possible factors for the decline in sexual activity with one possible explanation being that more people are living on their own. Passion killed: People are check their emails 'all the time', according to Professor David Spiegelhalter, a statistician at Cambridge University (file picture) But he added: 'A more realistic explanation is that as we’ve become better connected technologically, our lives have become busier with the boundaries eroded between home, work and the outside world. This has squeezed out time we would have spent with our other halves. The statistician quotes Catherine Mercer, a researcher on the British National Survey, as saying: ‘With an increasing number of competing demands on our time, sex just falls down our list of priorities.’ She adds that dealing with work emails late in the evening can mean that ‘come bedtime, we’re just still too connected with everyone and everything out there to be able to focus just on our partner.’
target: Typical heterosexual couples in Britain are having sex three times a month .
  The figure in 2000 was four times a month and five times a month in 1990 .
  Leading statistician says couples are checking their emails 'all the time'