Americans Are Having Less Sex Than Ever (wsj.com)
- Reference: 0178966830
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/1614253/americans-are-having-less-sex-than-ever
- Source link: https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/relationships/americans-are-having-less-sex-than-ever-785973ce?msockid=3de702e14e97667e2e0717d14fc1671e
> This continues the downward shift in sexual activity that has been worrying sociologists and psychologists for decades. For the report, called " [2]The Sex Recession ," researchers at the IFS analyzed the data on sex and intimacy in the latest General Social Survey produced by NORC at the University of Chicago, which was collected in 2024 and released in May. They found that just 37% of people age 18-64 reported having sex at least once a week, down from 55% in 1990. The decline is even more striking for young adults: Almost a quarter of people age 18-29, or 24%, said they had not had sex in the past year; this is twice as many as in 2010.
>
> Much has been written in recent years about the trend of young people having less sex, attributed to everything from stunted social skills to a rise in internet pornography. Yet the IFS study shows that the same trend holds true for people up to the age of 64, of all sexual orientations, both married and single. (After age 64, there was no significant change in the amount of sex people have, largely because this group reports having sex less frequently to begin with, the researchers said.)
[1] https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/relationships/americans-are-having-less-sex-than-ever-785973ce?msockid=3de702e14e97667e2e0717d14fc1671e
[2] https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-sex-recession-the-share-of-americans-having-regular-sex-keeps-dropping
Dios mio! (Score:2)
n/t
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I think that a nation-wide power outage of a week or two could make a difference.
Then we also have cases of women being more picky these days. The search for perfection is one of the problems. Then you have the economic incentive - two working people in a family aren't always able to afford children due to the exaggerated property costs. It doesn't matter if you rent or buy - the cost has to be reclaimed.
Re: (Score:2)
> Then we also have cases of women being more picky these days. The search for perfection is one of the problems.
Is that really true though? I've seen men of all types with girlfriends. But for any woman with a few extra pounds, much less actual obesity, they're very often single.
It seems to be the problem isn't women being picky, it's the hordes of guys who don't want to settle for anything but a hot intelligent women with a great personality.
Nice to finally be a trend setter (Score:5, Funny)
Jeez, people, catch up! Wake me when you have no sex all the time.
Re: (Score:3)
Only funny mod so far? Story seems to have potential and there seem to be some attempts at humor, but...
Anyway, in my case I didn't think the problem was the "American" part, but just the time thing. Again.
A non-paywalled article (Score:5, Informative)
[1]The Sex Recession: The Share of Americans Having Regular Sex Keeps Dropping [ifstudies.org]
[1] https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-sex-recession-the-share-of-americans-having-regular-sex-keeps-dropping
Re: (Score:2)
Something does seem to be happening, though its hard to tell from the linked piece what it is, just because sexual activity declining must be an indicator of something. But what?
A start is where the decline is happening - and the answer from the article seems to be everywhere in the US - married, single, all ages.
The logical next step would be to find whether its happening across all countries, all religions. Is it happening to gays as well as heteroxexuals? Is it different in gay men and gay women? Is it
Re: (Score:2)
> Is it different in gay men and gay women? Is it related to declines in other kinds of social interaction?
Just anecdotally based on where I live, most of the gay nightclubs clubs closed down in recent years. I'd assume that's because people are using hookup apps instead of going out. It's entirely possible that without the social lubricant of alcohol, less people are getting lucky via the apps.
That being said, I'm in a committed monogamous relationship, so that's all entirely just conjecture on my part. I haven't been in the dating scene in an eternity.
Re: (Score:2)
We're busy all the time, and a lot of that time is with things that make us really fucking angry or stressed: work, traffic, the infinite social obligations that are probably bullshit but we feel we need to do to survive (business networking, our fucking gym memberships, that friend who always wants to do something stupid), and for those not single, don't even get me started on all the things we're pressured to do for our kids.
We get home and we're angry and have 10 minutes before it's time to go to bed and
Re: (Score:2)
It's pretty simple - we're busy trying to make ends meet.
Raising a kid is expensive. Owning a house is a dream that may go unfulfilled for many people. And job insecurity basically means to not commit to anything.
A kid is an 18 year commitment. In the past 18 years we've seen numerous recessions and job losses - 2008 would be a big one, followed by the 2020 pandemic. But layoffs hit heavy and big as well, 2020 there were obvious layoffs, followed by 2023-2024 and continuing into 2025.
One of the unintended c
Re: Help a brother out (Score:2)
We can't afford Viagra any more.
Lacking definitions (Score:3)
"Sex" is a word that includes a lot of different activities. There's sex with partners, which may or may not include penetration, and then there's solo sex. There's sex without orgasm, and orgasm with very little other activity. There's sex for procreation, and sex that avoids it. In fact, when you study the subject (a study I thoroughly enjoy), there's such a vast variety of ways humans indulge in sex, and their appetite for that activity, that there's no meaningful "norm."
It's too bad clickbait headlines like this perpetuate common misunderstandings, but hey, it sells.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I think that your post is more symptomatic with the issue than anything else, to be honest. Everything is getting overly complicated.
No, sex is just sex. When a man and a woman (genders can be shuffled at random) get frisky in bed, it's sex. That's it.
Life lost a bit of its taste because everything is now labeled, categorized, planned, monetized, judged and archived for future reconsideration when the zeitgeist changes.
Sex is just sex. And people are having less of it. In fact, people seem to be doing less
Re: (Score:1)
To be honest, I think we tend to go out of our way to classify masturbation involving others or consensual molestation of others as sex for sake of the feelings of those involved. We use euphemism to craft socially acceptable terminology that sound sex like blurring the line to effectively make anything sexual actual sex or rather shifting the biological meaning to a social one.
Re: (Score:2)
Masturbation with others and consensual molestation???
I don't know what the heck you mean by that those signs like self contradictory terms.
2 or more people, 1 or more orgasm. No need to overcomplicate it. Without the first condition, it's just a wank. Without the second it's not even that.
Sex with an American??? (Score:5, Funny)
Well, to be fair, who would really want to have sex with an American? /s
Testosterone and other factors (Score:2)
While this is by no means anywhere near all factors but when men wear tight undies with overheated balls, when they become obese and less active their testosterone and fertility is affected significantly.
Now if you look at what kind of men most women find "hot" and or "sexy" they are almost universally not obese.
So ouside of the cost of living, the difficulty of raising children, toxic mascuinity, female selectivity etc there's this seriously BIG issue in the US about weight and it affects all levels of
Re: (Score:2)
If 75% of women think your average guy is unfit for a partner, then the problem is clearly women. Your average woman is perfectly acceptable for your average man. That's the point of average.
I blame the Internet. It's the one thing that consistent across all age groups and demographics. We're constantly being slammed with negativity about the economy, about the climate and these days the battle of the sexes has really taken a nasty turn. Furthermore, we have all these low-friction ways to ignore each other,
Depression (Score:5, Insightful)
Might be linked to the ongoing epidemic of depression. Those who are depressed, tend not to engage.
How about this...? (Score:1)
...well, doing it the traditional way is fraught with serious risk, to the extent that one particular party stands a fair chance of losing a lifetime of earnings or freedom.
For a heterosexual man, all the other party has to do is to claim "r***e" to have regrets too numerous to mention here.
Re:How about this...? (Score:5, Insightful)
I've never met someone who seriously considered that as a problem. It's mostly an excuse incels make when they get turned down for being too creepy
Re: (Score:2)
> It's mostly an excuse incels make when they get turned down for being too creepy
And incels tend to hang out in their echo chambers, reinforcing their beliefs that they don't need to better themselves to be a more attractive mate, because from their perspective it's clearly the rest of the world that's gone off the rails.
Re: (Score:2)
While that's probably true, it doesn't take an echo chamber to tell me that I am better off solo then dealing with women anymore. I say this as someone that left a marriage of 15 years because we were both miserable. I may be lonely now but I'm far from miserable. I'll call that a net gain.
I figure I'm single for a handful of reasons. First, my red flags. Atheist, libertarian and doesn't want kids (or to raise another mans kids). Those 3 characteristics immediately make it hard to consider me for anything l
Missing key factors (Score:1)
> What might be missing or underemphasized?
> Here are some important angles the article doesn't deeply explore -- or only scratches the surface of:
> 1. Delayed adulthood and economic precarity among young adults
> IFS doesn't discuss longer transitions into adulthood -- like living with parents, delayed employment, or economic instability -- which correlate with delay in romantic/sexual activity. Evidence shows sexual inactivity rose sharply in young men and women even before the pandemic. Economic dependenc
Could it be because nearly everyone is so fat? (Score:1, Troll)
Over the last 40 years or so the number of obese Americans has risen more than 80%. Everywhere you look. It used to be that a "big" guy was 180 pounds and now it is is common to see sixth graders that weigh more than that and it is mostly all fat. The girls are even worse.
Of course there are still people around who are not obese. You can find them in sport clubs and other venues where such people congregate. But they are the minority now.
Obese is unhealthy. Your genes are programmed see health
Re:Could it be because nearly everyone is so fat? (Score:4)
Fat people still have sex. Just watch any number of shows where they're trying to figure out the paternity of some bastard and odds are it's a fat woman who's the mother. The number of men that they have to test in some cases is astounding. Don't mistake your lack of attraction for a general trend.
If anything I suspect it's dating apps and the user base trying to hold out for better.
Re: (Score:2)
I suspect you are correct about the date apps. You can always just swipe left for another person. Oh, this one only has 8 out of your 10 MUST HAVES, swipe left. These apps give the illusion of unlimited potential and surely your PERFECT person is there somewhere. It's delusional thinking and of course people are pulling back from those dating apps as a result.
As a guy, you get back to the point where you just swipe right on everything because the amount of attention you receive back is next to nothing anywa
Re: (Score:2)
Oh geez evopsych.
Your genes are for an African planes ape, and not much had changed since then genetics wise. Hunter gatherers are more at risk of starvation than diabetes, so obese is about the healthiest state. If you get that far you are phenomenally successful. Being fat is the best way of surviving the inevitable lean times.
Biology isn't just so stories. Nothing about it if remotely simple as "my genes mean I think fat people are ugly".
even less than they did during Covid-19 (Score:2)
Really?
I had so much sex with my wife during the pandemic, since we couldn't go anywhere.
They must be talking about singles.
Cost vs Reward (Score:4, Insightful)
When you think about it, having regular sex is quite a resource-expensive activity. Maintaining your partner in a happy and sex-enabled mood usually requires quite a significant investment in terms of time, effort and money, and this cost only goes up as the time in the relationship goes on; keeping things new and exciting takes a real effort. All of that because the nature tells us to procreate. Perhaps people are wanking... erm waking up to the realisation that when it comes to sex, the effort to reward ratio is pretty damn low.
Why would they want it (Score:5, Funny)
They already getting fucked enough by their government. Probably need a break.
Half the pop risks death every time (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, that's gonna reduce the incident rate. (And yes, i realize that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it's waaaaaaaaay closer than it has any damn business being)
Don't knock masturbation. (Score:5, Funny)
It's sex with somebody you love.
Re:Don't knock masturbation. (Score:4, Insightful)
> It's sex with somebody you love .
If we could all be so lucky.
So much anti-sex sentiment! (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow, surprised by these comments. My partner and I have sex regularly and we both really enjoy it. It's fun, a good workout, and it releases all kinds of pleasure hormones. Stop reading /. and go out and have sex! Bye...
Re:So much anti-sex sentiment! (Score:4, Insightful)
> Stop reading /. and go out and have sex!
Also, did you know? You can stop being poor by having money!
Re: (Score:2)
Umm i think I'd rather stay in and have sex than go out and have it. I'm not an exhibitionist.
We are working more hours than to Japanese (Score:3)
As always it's the economy stupid. At the wages Americans are paid relative to the cost to survive let alone thrive courtship and dating are right out the door.
Japan had exactly the same problem when they demanded long hours for low pay in the 90s their birthright crashed. Even before birth control was legally available their birth rate had crashed.
And Americans have to deal with our incredibly crappy transportation system on top of everything else. So in addition to the 50 to 60 hour work weeks you can add 12 to 15 hours a week of commuting by car. Because trains are communist or something...
Re: (Score:2)
> So in addition to the 50 to 60 hour work weeks you can add 12 to 15 hours a week of commuting by car.
Maybe it has something to do with cars, but not the part of car culture you're referring to. Ever noticed how much fewer "fun" cars there are on the road these days? Seems like everything that isn't a pickup truck is a boring gray/white/silver/black SUV or Tesla model 3 (and those are almost always in the "free" gray color).
Perhaps there's some truth to "you ain't getting laid in a Prius."
Unless you're getting it on during your commute (Score:2)
Then taking anywhere from 12 to 20 hours a week out of your life so you can drive to work (let alone the time to drive to the grocery store, where I live the grocery store is down the street and it still takes me 10 to 15 minutes to get there because of traffic)
There are plenty of chick magnet cars out there. The important part is how much it costs not what it is because it's a way of signaling. The human equivalent to a peacock putting its display on.
And plenty of people can afford those cars becaus
Re: (Score:2)
> There are plenty of chick magnet cars out there. The important part is how much it costs not what it is because it's a way of signaling. The human equivalent to a peacock putting its display on.
Yeah, there's still plenty of cars for the conspicuous consumption demographic, but the market for cars that say "hey, I may not be rich but I still want to have fun!" has pretty much evaporated. [1]Other people have noticed this trend, too. [reddit.com]
Basically, everybody's car now looks like something you'd use for Uber. No wonder people aren't getting laid as often.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/whatcarshouldIbuy/comments/1k2b3a2/why_are_coupessports_cars_no_longer_popular_in/
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm, you would think with all those SUVs on the road, there would be plenty of space in the backseat for a bit of fun. I bet the guy driving the Mercedes is still getting laid, likely by his mistress.
Give Us Numbers According to Gender! (Score:2)
Almost every study I've seen on this subject rarely presents the numbers by gender, which could be hiding extremely important details regarding this decline, especially for young people. This article does provide information about each gender, but only for married couples. This won't reveal how trends could be starting with the younger generations. The studies that do provide that data indicate that young men are having significantly less sex while young women are much closer to the expected rates. This
Re: (Score:2)
Read that as "Give Us Numbers According to Grindr !"
Sex ain't dying until Grindr confirms it.
Re: (Score:2)
Women are the gatekeepers of sex and yet you are still somehow blaming men for this problem. Bottom line, there is nothing wrong with your average guy or gal. What is wrong is our toxic, always connected cellphone in hand culture and I don't see that changing.
It also doesn't help that women really have next to ZERO need for a man in modern western society. If they don't want kids (many young women don't want kids), then why even waste time on boys and their toys?
As you own research reveals, women are still
stress (Score:2)
Ppl have less sex because they are stressed and overworked by the ruling class. People get a lower share of thier productivity than ever before.
Capitalists find this problematic (Score:2)
Because the system requires it.
A cynic's view of the matter (Score:2)
"The pleasure is momentary, the position is ridiculous, and the expense is damnable."
Re: (Score:2)
> "The pleasure is momentary, the position is ridiculous, and the expense is damnable."
If it flies, floats or fucks, rent it.
Lies.... (Score:2)
Man I'm knee deep in pussy at 60- years old.
I've got more opportunities than I did in my 20s. So you guys who think it's icky- two things:
1. Thanks for leaving me a portion.
2. I always shake hands.
Enjoy!
Not less (Score:2)
Not less. Americans are just getting fucked more in other ways than nature intended it.
Porn is better than sex anyways (Score:2)
As America gets older, the physical demands of sex are quite high. It is more enjoyable to watch porn and experience the same effects.
With endless streaming porn content, we have also solved the problem of getting bored by the same video or the problem of obtaining a video and being disappointed by the quality.
Re: (Score:1)
Of all the nutty things that can be safely said about rsilvergun, I don't believe that is one of them: He doesn't appear to dissociate. On the other hand, he long ago turned himself into an ongoing slashdot meme because of all the weird shit he incessantly babbles about, so in that sense he's kind of just whatever negative stereotype anybody feels like tossing at him.
Re: Sex is stupid (Score:3)
Still, it gives the old immune system a boost and has other healt-benefits as well. That seems preferable to "hygenic", which in this case seems no more than a word of compulsion.
Re: (Score:2)
s/healt-benefits/heath benefits/
"word of compulsion"? Perhaps revulsion?
But no mention of oxytocin?
Now going for funny... Must have something to do with recent voting patterns? Like male pattern baldness, but with bedroom problems spreading to the voting booth?
(Joke of the day is actually about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for everyone or just the YOB and PT? Just kidding. There is no gawd and if you're that super greedy, then no amount of imaginary money (or even imaginary sex) will make y
Re:Sex is stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
That's a rather dismal view of sex. A similar logic could be applied to almost everything as most human action is fulfilling some biological urge. Is sex with you so unsatisfying that your partner gets nothing from it beyond being a receptacle for your urge? I'm not even sure that the Puritans were so dispassionate. Even reproduction can be accomplished without the sex act, so shouldn't your view be that all sex is merely an unhygienic means to satisfy some urge. For that matter, procreation itself is a biological urge to some degree.
Re: (Score:2)
From the sound of things, I think he's just a starfish that has only ever had sex with other starfish.
[1]https://www.urbandictionary.co... [urbandictionary.com]
And yeah, that would be pretty dismal.
[1] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Starfish
Re: Sex is stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder how you came about then. Sex was regarded as a validating experience between 2 (or more not judging) human beings looking for connection, affirmation, social status, or maybe just a way to feel alive. Of course its a dopeamine response to encourage one to practice procreation. Its just sad that people thanks to lack of education, economics, social media cant enjoy themselves more.
Re: (Score:3)
This is slashdot... Once you hit a certain age, sex in your mothers basement kind of dries out, if it ever was flowing to begin with. At that point you'll find a way to make it make sense to you.
Re: (Score:2)
> Sex was regarded as a validating experience between 2 (or more not judging) human beings looking for connection, affirmation, social status
When I was growing up as a teenager in the 90s, there were few things worse than being sexless (or worse: a virgin). The social stigma was so massive that it even became a cliche among teenage comedy movies. However, now that so many young people (especially men) are sexless, the stigma seems to be declining rapidly. It's harder to shame other men for not getting la
Re: (Score:2)
> life's driving ambition needn't be getting at a nice pair of tits.
If a guy really wants a nice pair of tits, there's doctors that can help with that.
Re: Sex is stupid (Score:1)
Yes on all counts, sometimes they even share the same office.
It's a weird Puritan Christian thing (Score:2)
It comes from a misreading of the Bible because so many people want to assume the Bible is literal and univocal (in other words that the Bible speaks with one voice and is one document instead of a collection of competing and contradictory documents)
So back in the day shortly after Jesus was crucified people thought he was coming back and they thought he was coming back real soon. So you were told not to bother marrying and going about having kids and having sex because there wasn't any point. We were
Re: (Score:2)
It's more likely just based on a really piss-poor understanding of STIs in biblical times. People understood that if you did a bunch of sleeping around, you'd likely fall ill. They didn't understand what caused it, so it was just "punishment from God".
Even though we now understand what actually causes sexually transmitted diseases and ways to reduce the likelihood of their spread, some people still cling to the whole "God doesn't like it" thing for the usual reasons that people still believe in aspects of
Re: (Score:2)
First off, let's make it clear that you're well past the event horizon in your long, gradual descent into total madness. That said...
> So you were told not to bother marrying and going about having kids and having sex because there wasn't any point.
Where are you even getting this from?
> We were all going to get dragged up to heaven
Actually the kingdom of heaven, which if we take literally, as you suggest, from the book of revelation, is talking about something akin to a massively sized spaceship that has neither clouds nor pearly gates, instead being described as being almost like a meadow with a very lush landscape, somewhere in the sky, and it's not here yet, meani
Re: (Score:2)
I know right! It's just so intrinsic to life that even plants depend on it for survival.
Survival of the fittest ensures that those who don't have sex, won't produce offspring.
Re: (Score:2)
Most would beg to differ.
To quote George Michael from a long time ago:
> Sex is natural, sex is good, not everybody does it but everybody should.
Re: (Score:2)
Not sure doing it the way George Michael did it was natural or should be done by everybody, i.e. literally placing your excretion organ in the place excrement comes out in a public place people go to to void themselves of excrement.
George Michael was still straight in 1987 (Score:2)
In case anyone's confused:
The quotation was from the lyrics of the song [1]"I Want Your Sex" from George Michael's 1987 solo debut Faith [genius.com]. That song's lyrics are from the point of view of the male in a heterosexual monogamous couple: "I can't take much more, girl / I'm losing control" (my emphasis). Michael's turn toward specifically gay lyrics would come several years later, starting around 1998.
[1] https://genius.com/George-michael-i-want-your-sex-pts-1-and-2-lyrics
Re: (Score:2)
> In case anyone's confused
The previous poster wasn't confused about song lyrics, he was just implying that heterosexuals don't do anal . Which of course, isn't true. Some heterosexual women and men both enjoy doing it in the butt (the woman as the bottom works as you'd assume, and the heterosexual version of a woman topping a guy is called "pegging" - obviously, involving a strap-on). And because you really can't tar everyone with the same brush, not all gay guys are into anal.
Re: (Score:2)
> To quote George Michael from a long time ago:
>> Sex is natural, sex is good, not everybody does it but everybody should.
I can imagine a certain current First Lady disagreeing with most of that. :-)
Re: Sex is stupid (Score:2)
Nah, it's fun, but you probably wouldn't know. Sure, you can also get that from taking drugs, but why not take both, that's even better.
Re: Sex is stupid (Score:2)
Please provide my contact details to your wife.
Re:Sex is stupid (Score:5, Funny)
> Getting a dopamine fix by thrusting one's body part in and out of a fleshy wet hole is a stupid waste of time.
For some reason that reminds me of my response to the "favorite sex scene" profile question on a dating site years ago: "I'm not sure, but it certainly wasn't when Malcolm McDowell shoved his fist into some unfortunate subordinate's rectum in Caligula ."
Re: (Score:2)
It sure feels good though, you sound like someone who hasn't had it since it had you. maybe you should try it sometime?
Re: (Score:2)
> Getting a dopamine fix by thrusting one's body part in and out of a fleshy wet hole is a stupid waste of time.
And yet you're perched in front of a keyboard on this forum and you somehow consider this to be productive. As for the article, I think we can all thank #MeToo for this. All women are to some degree crazy. Distinguishing crazy from batshit crazy is an art form that most of us lack. #MeToo made it safer to say screw it than screwing it.
Re: (Score:2)
> Getting a dopamine fix by thrusting one's body part in and out of a fleshy wet hole is a stupid waste of time.
Agreed, because that result was you.
#sexCausesBackslashdot
Mod parents down! (Score:2)
Like, literally its parents. What a waste.