Infidelity. Cheating. Adultery. Unfaithfulness. Stepping out. However you label it, going behind your partner’s back for some side action is incredibly common in America. Estimates vary on just how prevalent cheating is in marriages and relationships, but one survey found it could be as high as 25 percent!
While there are many reasons that people may seek sexual experiences outside of a relationship, researchers found the most common excuses are lack of commitment, feeling neglected at home, loss of interest in sex with one’s partner and even “situational” scenarios such as being far from home with an attractive person and consuming a great deal of alcohol. And then there are such mid-life crises as “the 9’s” — when people of an age ending in the numeral nine, anxious about aging into a new decade, choose to bury fears of their own mortality by straying from the marital bed.
Infidelity knows no limits when it comes to age, culture, religious affiliation or socioeconomic status and is very much a part of the human condition, as much as we wish to think otherwise. But, if there’s any good news, we know the states you can avoid if you hope to keep your marriage alive and, well, monogamous. These 25 places — some, thanks to big cities within their boundaries — are the most unfaithful, according to data compiled by Cosmopolitan and from the hacking of adultery website Ashley Madison.