Study finds average number of dates, relationships, and heartbreaks before meeting The One

As the wise Pat Benetar once said, "love is a battlefield." Now, thanks to a study out of the UK, we have a sense for how big exactly that battlefield is and how long the war will be.

Pulling from a 2000-person sample, the study analyzed participants' dating statistics to determine everything from the average number of kisses to the number of dates and long-term relationships women and men go through before finding the partner of their dreams.

Women can expect numbers along the lines of 15 kisses, two long-term relationships, seven dates, four one-night stands, and seven sexual partners, among other statistics. That's a whole lot of frogs before the prince.

Men, on the other hand, average about 10 sexual partners, eight dates, six one-night stands, eight kisses, and six long-term relationships. So, more all around generally, but perhaps that has to do with 88 percent of men surveyed subscribing to the notion of "true love," compared to 94 percent of women.

The purpose, though, is not to pin the "we have it worse" badge on men or women as far as dating goes. It's that everyone—man, woman, or otherwise—faces a monumental climb in finding their Happily Ever After. Adversity in love, after all, knows no race, gender, creed or political party.

Which is to say, don't give up just yet. You might hit the magic number soon.

[Glamour]