NATURIST EDUCATION FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES RESULTS OF NATIONWIDE ROPER POLL ON SKINNY-DIPPING AND NUDE SUNBATHING

OSHKOSH, Wisconsin - A new nationwide poll commissioned by the Naturist Education Foundation (NEF) and conducted by the prestigious polling firm of Roper Public Affairs, indicates that close to three-quarters of Americans approve of nude sunbathing on beaches set aside for that purpose.

In the scientific sampling of 1009 U.S. adults conducted recently by Roper, 74 percent of those polled said they believed people who enjoy nude sunbathing should be able to do so without interference from local officials as long as they do so at a beach that is accepted for that purpose. The sustained high approval rating for nude beaches is up slightly from the 72% who responded favorably to an identical poll question posed by Gallup in 1983, and off a bit from the high of 80% who approved in a 2000 poll commissioned by NEF and administered by Roper.

The NEF/Roper Poll 2006 was conducted September 8th-10th, 2006, and surveyed 1,009 adult U.S. residents. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points. Roper Public Affairs is a subsidiary of GfK NOP, LLC, an international research business.

Responses to other questions in the poll suggest that more than 55 million Americans have, at one time or another, skinny-dipped or sunbathed nude in mixed-gender groups.

A majority of Americans favor the proposal that a portion of public land should be set aside by governments for nude recreation, as is often done for other special recreation interests like snowmobiling, surfing and hunting. Approval for government designation of clothing-optional areas has risen from 39% in 1983 to 48% in 2000, and has reached 54% in the 2006 survey.

"Public approval has been building continually for designating clothing-optional areas," noted NEF Chair Bob Morton. "But governmental agencies have been slow to respond to the emerging demand. This updated poll demonstrates that the trend is certainly no fluke. A majority now expects governments to respond."