Today's women have far more sexual partners than those in swinging 60s

London, Mar 16 : Today's young women have slept with three times as many men as girls of the same age in the so-called 'Swinging Sixties', known for mini skirts, the Rolling Stones and drugs, according to a study.

Despite the image of practicing free love, the average 24-year-old woman in the 1960s had 1.72 sexual partners.

On the other hand, today''s women of the same age have an average of 5.65 bed partners, which is more than her mother who is likely to have had 3.72 partners.

The study of 3,000 females of all ages, conducted by the chain Lloydspharmacy, comes as the chain voices fears of increased sexual health risks for women at a time when screening and better information should be reducing it.

A Lloydspharmacy spokeswoman said that cervical cancer rates in women under 25 have not decreased over the past decades despite better screening, possibly because of the greater number of partners, reports the Scotsman.

The chain is promoting a campaign for women to get a vaccine against HPV - the human papilloma virus - which is a sexually transmitted infection and a major cause of cervical cancer.