Americans would rather navigate the Internet than have sex, according to a new study carried out by Harris Interactive and sponsored by Intel Corp.

The findings show that 65 percent of adults in the United States can’t live without the World Wide Web. They rated it above cable television subscriptions (39 percent), going out for dinner (20 percent), shopping for clothes (18 percent) or a health club membership (just 10 percent). Also with regard to shopping, 66 percent said they have saved money only by shopping on the Internet.

“The Internet is more important to most of our respondents than shopping for clothes. You need clothes; clothes are not an option," said Michelle Melamaud, an analyst at Harris Interactive, who admitted having been surprised when seeing the results.

The most astonishing fact is that 46 percent of women and 30 percent of men who answered the survey said they would rather give up sex for two weeks than live without access to the Internet for the same amount of time. 49 percent of women ages 18-34 and 52 percent of women ages 35-44 responded this way. For men ages 18-34, it was 39 percent, the “Internet Reliance in Today’s Economy” survey says.

About 95 percent of the 2,119 respondents ages 18 and older said it was "very important, important or somewhat important" to be connected to the internet.

The survey, which was conducted online, also shows that roughly 61 percent of women would rather go without TV for 14 days than not be able to access the Internet for 7 days.