Dating website reveals most adulterous D.C.-area neighborhoods

WASHINGTON — D.C.-area residents have been engaging in extra-marital affairs in record numbers, according to new data from a website that facilitates adultery.

Ashley Madison — a dating website designed for people already in relationships with the tagline, “Life is short. Have an affair.” — reveals the most unfaithful neighborhoods in and around the nation’s capital.

The website says it helps cheating partners find an affair.

Based on the 48,062 Ashley Madison members who live in the metropolitan area, the most affair seekers live in Dupont Circle, with Georgetown, and Arlington rounding out the top three ZIP codes, the data finds.

The site has more than 25,665,000 anonymous members around the country.

So where do the cheaters live locally?

The research says the following are the area’s 10 most popular philandering neighborhoods and the percentage of Ashley Madison members who live the neighborhood:

  1. Dupont Circle – 9.6 percent
  2. Georgetown – 9.2 percent
  3. Arlington – 8.9 percent
  4. Adams Morgan – 8.4 percent
  5. Logan Circle – 8.3 percent
  6. Capitol Hill – 8.1 percent
  7. Fairfax – 7.8 percent
  8. Atlas District (H Street corridor) – 7.5 percent
  9. Bethesda – 7.3 percent
  10. Columbia Heights – 6.8 percent

Apparently, affluence is a reappearing factor found on most of the cities’ top 10 lists.

“The proclivity to cheat often goes hand in hand with opportunity. Those with discretionary income and freedom to travel are even more likely to stray,” Ashley Madison founder and CEO Noel Biderman says in a statement.

Ashley Madison also dug up this dirt about the D.C. area:

  • 47 percent of D.C.’s philanderers are female with an average age of 35 years old.
  • Cheaters living in Fairfax have the most children.
  • Washington, D.C., is the No. 2 city in the U.S. when it comes to men “fraternizing” with subordinate co-workers and having mistresses. The District trails Phoenix, according to Huffington Post.
  • Capitol Hill is home to the most members logging in with government e-mail address.

The Ashley Madison company started in 2001 and officially launched its website to the public in 2002 — appropriately on Valentine’s Day.

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