Sex: It’s been around for thousands of years and has experienced varying popularity, though mostly good reviews. Starting in the 1960s, it enjoyed quite the upswing, but now millennials say it’s so not cool anymore.
According to the Washington Post, a new study in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior “finds that younger millennials - born in the 1990s - are more than twice as likely to be sexually inactive in their early 20s than the previous generation was, and more likely even than older millennials were at the same age.”
Other statistics from recent studies back up that trend. In 1991, 54.1 percent of high schoolers reported they had intercourse; by 2015, the number was 41.2 percent. When 20- to 24-year-olds are surveyed, 15 percent have not had sex since turning 18. By contrast, that number was 6 percent in the early ‘90s. Overall sexual-partner count is down too — baby-boomers report an average of 11 sexual partners, Gen-Xers 10, and millennials 8 — though that could just be because the previous two generations have had more time on this earth to do it.
Millennials and experts alike attribute various factors to this overall sexual decline. Some chalk it up to ever-present smartphones and dating apps, others say they’re waiting for intimacy, others because they’re too busy. One highly practical 18-year-old said he chose not to have sex because he’d “rather be watching YouTube videos and making money.”
But fans of sex need not worry. Trends are circular, after all.
