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Kissing facts, stats and records

Every kissing fact, record, statistic and quote we can stand behind, with the sources shown.

Illustrated couple sharing a kiss
Illustrated couple sharing a kiss
Illustrated couple sharing a kiss

Kissing by the numbers

80 million. The number of bacteria that pass from one mouth to another in a ten-second kiss, according to a Dutch study of 21 couples.

4,500 years. The age of the earliest written records of romantic kissing, on clay tablets from Mesopotamia.

33 a week. How often people in relationships said they kissed their partner, in a survey of 695 American adults.

20 seconds. The length of the first kiss ever filmed, in 1896.

58 hours. The longest kiss on record, set by a couple in Thailand in 2013.

44%. The share of people in that same survey who said a kiss had once made them lose interest in someone.

What the world really says

These are facts from other people’s research. We are also collecting our own. The World Kissing Census asks adults how they kiss, then ranks the nations. Live results will appear here as soon as enough people have played.

Take the census

World kissing records

Record Holder Where and when
Longest kiss: 58 hours, 35 minutes and 58 seconds Ekkachai and Laksana Tiranarat Pattaya, Thailand, February 2013. They won a kissing endurance contest between nine couples.
Most kisses received in one minute: 118 Brian Antczak Odessa, Ukraine, February 2011. He beat the previous best of 112, set in Washington DC in 2009.
First kiss on screen: 20 seconds May Irwin and John C. Rice The Kiss, a short film made in April 1896. Guinness World Records lists it as the first screen kiss.

Records get broken. For the latest, check Guinness World Records.

How kissing began

Nobody knows who kissed first. Kissing is almost certainly older than writing. The oldest written records that describe romantic kissing are clay tablets from Mesopotamia, in what is now Iraq, around 4,500 years old. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, Troels Pank Arbøll and Sophie Lund Rasmussen, pointed them out in the journal Science in 2023.

Until then, the usual answer was an Indian text of about 3,500 years ago. The new work shows romantic kissing was already part of life in the ancient Middle East, and not a habit that spread from a single place.

The science of a kiss

The study of kissing has its own name: philematology. Here is what the research says so far.

  • You swap bacteria. In the Dutch study, published in the journal Microbiome in 2014, a ten-second kiss moved about 80 million bacteria into the other person’s mouth. Couples who kissed often ended up with very similar mouth bacteria. Those who kissed at least nine times a day had the closest match.
  • Your lips are delicate. Lips have very thin skin and no oil glands of their own, which is why they dry and crack in cold weather. See our soft lips tips.
  • People notice kissing quality. In the American survey of 695 adults, the worst kisses were mostly described as too much tongue or saliva, or as having no spark. Women rated breath, body scent and pressure as more important than men did.
  • Cold sores spread by kissing. The cold sore virus passes easily through kissing, so wait until a sore has healed.

Kissing myths

  • “You can check your breath by breathing into your hand.” You cannot. Your nose gets used to your own smell. Try flossing and smelling the floss, or ask someone you trust.
  • “A kiss burns 150 calories a minute.” You will see this figure everywhere, but there is no good evidence behind it. Treat it as a fun line, not a workout.
  • “A good kisser is born, not made.” Technique, timing and fresh breath all help. Our kissing tips cover the basics.

Quotes about kissing

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.

Song of Solomon 1:2, King James Bible

Thus with a kiss I die.

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 5

Da mi basia mille, deinde centum.

Catullus, around 60 BC. It means: give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred.

A kiss, when all is said, what is it? An oath sworn nearer by; a promise made with greater certainty.

Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac (1897), Act 3, in the 1898 English translation by Kingsbury

Often credited to the wrong person

You will often see “a kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous” credited to the actress Ingrid Bergman. Quote researchers found no evidence that she said it. The earliest printed version is an anonymous definition in a 1943 comic dictionary. If you share it, credit it as anonymous.

Sources