Boomtown: D.C. Named 'America's Least Faithful City'

For the second year in a row, an online dating website for married people eager to cheat on their spouses has named Washington, D.C. “America’s least faithful city.”

AshleyMadison.com, which claims to have over 17 million anonymous members, says it used its own member data to compile the list. The nation’s capital had the highest sign-ups per capita in 2012 with 34,157 members. Rounding out the top three cities were Austin and Houston. 

“With enormous public attention paid to political cheating scandals this year, including the Gen. Petraeus affair, there was no doubt that Washington residents would be influenced,” says Ashley Madison CEO and founder Noel Biderman. “Living in D.C., it’s crucial to keep up appearances and therefore adultery has become a way of life for many of the city’s most powerful residents.”

The infidelity figures come on the heels of a recent Fox News special that highlighted how Washington’s permanent political class lead lives of luxury and decadence paid for on the backs of taxpayers. The Sean Hannity special, “Boomtown,” featured Breitbart News Executive Chairman and Government Accountability Institute (GAI) Co-founder Stephen K. Bannon and GAI President and Co-Founder Peter Schweizer. 

The report revealed that Washington, D.C. boasts the highest median income in America, consumes more gallons of wine per capita than any other city, and is now the North American headquarters for Lamborghini.

Social scientists say that despite the media’s obsession with reporting celebrity infidelities, actual rates of marital cheating are relatively low. According to a General Social Survey (GSS) study by the National Science Foundation, less than 5% of men and 3% of women are unfaithful each year.

“Despite the marital misbehavior of a few politicians and athletes, infidelity is becoming less popular, not more popular, in America,” says Dr. W. Bradford Wilcox, Director of the Marriage Project at the University of Virginia.