The data comes from the Institute for Family Studies.
Senior Fellow Lyman Stone observes that “all measures of sexlessness rose for both young adult males and females” and focused on young adults between the ages of 22 and 34, most of whom have finished their education and are beginning their adult lives.
While the dominant majority of young adults surveyed reported having had sex at some point in their lives, nearly a quarter of young adult males reported not having had sex in the last year, nearly triple the 9% who said the same in 2013-2015. About 13% of young adult females said they hadn’t had sex in the last year, up from 8% in the initial survey wave.
About one out of 10 young males in this demographic reported being virgins in 2022-2023, up from 4% in 2013-2015. For females, the virginity rate increased from 5% to 7% during that time.
According to Stone, “One of the biggest drivers of declining sexual activity is the decline in marriage. Married people have more sex, and for most young adults, marriage is occurring later or not at all. As a result, sex is declining.”
IFS has found that as marriage rates plummet, more young people are delaying or avoiding dating altogether.