Latest news
18.5.2026
Sex life happiness matters for health.
A new EMIS-2017 analysis examines how individual experiences and social contexts influence sex life happiness among MSM across Europe. The findings show links between sexual wellbeing, relationship status, openness about sexuality, experiences of homophobia, and political environments. Importantly, the analysis shows how contextual variables may impact sex life happiness not just directly, but also indirectly through changes in behaviour—offering important insights for improving health outcomes in marginalised populations.
4.5.2026
Chemsex
A new article by Dirk Sander for Checkmagazin explores the hidden scale of chemsex-related harm in Germany and calls for a shift from moral judgement towards public-health approaches, harm reduction and accessible support services [article in German, below the linked PDFs].
5.4.2026
The sexiest man on the planet
At the end of EMIS-2024, we asked one deliberately unserious question. The answers were more revealing than expected.
Across the dataset, the most common responses were not celebrities, but “myself” and “my partner” — far more frequent than any named public figure, including widely recognised actors such as Henry Cavill or Brad Pitt.
Where celebrities did appear, the pattern followed age rather than geography, reflecting generational visibility more than any shared global ranking.
Country differences added some flavour. In Germany, some respondents dismissed the question outright; in the United Kingdom, others met it with a more familiar British sense of humour, welcoming a moment of levity.
Even a playful question, it seems, can say something serious about how attraction works. Read more.
19.03.2026
EMIS-2024 Design and Methods published
We are pleased to announce that our EMIS-2024 Methods Paper has now been published in Sexuality Research and Social Policy.
EMIS-2024 builds on our previous survey waves in 2010 and 2017, continuing to generate essential data on the sexual health, wellbeing, and lived experiences of men who have sex with men (MSM), as well as transgender and non-binary people across Europe. These populations remain disproportionately affected by stigma, mental health challenges, HIV, and other sexually transmitted infections, underscoring the need for reliable and comparable data to inform public health action.
With EMIS-2024, the consortium’s collaborative model is now reflected across all three survey waves: in line with EMIS’ core principle of integrating community organisations, academia, and governmental public health institutions, coordination has successively been led by each of these sectors. This is mirrored in the current consortium partners—Deutsche Aidshilfe (community organisation), Maastricht University (academic institution), and Robert Koch Institute (governmental public health institute).
More than 60 partners in 40 countries contributed to the survey, producing 35 language versions and supporting wide dissemination. Conducted online in the first half of 2024, EMIS-2024 collected 165,380 responses, of which 50,330 are included in the analytic sample.
A key strength of EMIS-2024 is its harmonised design, using a shared sampling frame and core questionnaire across countries to enable meaningful cross-national comparisons.
EMIS-2024 demonstrates the continued value of coordinated, multi-country behavioural surveillance and needs assessment with strong community involvement and public funding.
Past updates
Project
The European MSM Internet Survey (EMIS) is a multi-country, multi-language, anonymous online survey for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM).
EMIS is a joint project of community, academic, and governmental partners across Europe, to inform sexual health interventions for MSM. It occurred in 2010 and 2017 with core-funding from the European Union Health Programme. Since October 2023, we have managed to establish sufficient funding for repeating EMIS, with data collection in the first half of 2024.
EMIS-2024 is executed by a consortium of three partners: Deutsche Aidshilfe (DAH), Maastricht University, and Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Team DAH: Dr. Axel J. Schmidt (co-principal investigator), Dr. Tamás Bereczky (coordinator EEA/CH/IL), with the support of Dr. Dirk Sander, Jonathan Gregory, Ferenc Bagyinszky, Alexandra Gurinova, Silke Klumb. Team Maastricht: Prof. Dr. Kai J. Jonas (co-principal investigator), Liana Aphami (data coordinator), Jules L. Casalini (trans sub-survey coordinator). Team RKI: Dr. Ulrich Marcus (co-principal investigator), Dr. Nikolay Lunchenkov (coordinator EECA).
EMIS-2024 is co-funded by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the following countries: BE, CH, DE, EE, ES, IE, IL, LU, NL, NO, PT, and SE. For details see EMIS-2024 Network. One of the key benefits of EMIS has been the possibility of completing the questionnaire in all of the official languages of the European Economic Area (EEA). This is particularly important for countries with large proportions of migrants from Southern, Eastern, or South-eastern Europe.
In EMIS-2024 we cover 50 countries and 35 languages.
Countries receiving national funding are shown in dark blue, while those in lighter shades of blue are included without funding, as their national languages are already covered. Countries co-funded by ECDC are highlighted in light green. Countries receiving funding from Germany’s Global Health Protection Programme (GHPP) are highlighted in dark green.
Previous EMIS rounds also included Belarus, as well as Lebanon, Canada, and the Philippines outside the WHO European Region. EMIS was coordinated by Deutsche Aidshilfe (DAH) and Robert Koch Institute (RKI), as illustrated in the following map.
