Americans losing interest in sex: Virginity becoming a trend?

Americans are losing interest in sex, according to a government study, the New York Post reports.

Sex abstinence rates are rising from coast to coast among adults ages 22 to 34, according to the National Survey of Family Growth. Ten percent of young men and 7 percent of women say they are still virgins.

“Overall, among young adult men, asexuality has roughly doubled across all measures over the past 10 years or so. Among young adult women, it has increased by about 50 percent,” said the Institute for Family Research (IFS), which published an analysis of the study.

The survey is conducted annually by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), with support from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Researchers conduct face-to-face interviews with American men and women ages 15 to 49, collecting data on everything from bedroom behavior to reproductive health habits.

As well as virginity appearing to be trending, the figures also showed a big jump in the number of sexually active men and women aged 22-34 reporting a serious lack of love.

A total of 24 percent of men aged 22-34 had not had sex in 2022-23—up from 9 percent in 2013-15. Among women, the figure was 13 percent—up from 8 percent.

And when asked if they had had sex in the last three months, 35 percent of men said no. Women didn’t fare much better, at 31 percent.

The IFS said that across all categories, the data showed the number of young men experiencing sex starvation had roughly doubled in the last decade. For women, the figure was 50 percent.

Narrowing the focus to find out when these trends started, the experts said most of the jump occurred between 2019 and 2022—the same time as the pandemic. But they suggested also that COVID-era mandates may not be the only reason for the decline.

"One of the biggest drivers of the decline in sexual activity is the decline in marriage. Married people are having more sex, and for most young people, marriage is happening later or not at all. As a result, sex is on the decline," they said.

A previously published Pew Research study found that a record 25 percent of Americans aged 40 and younger have never been married.