Make America mate again?
A new study released by the Archives of Sexual Behavior found that US adults are having less sex than they did during the 1990s, partially due to higher numbers of unpartnered individuals, who tend to have sex less often than their married counterparts. Drops in sexual frequency were noted across gender, race, region, educational level and work status, but sex among people who are married or living with significant others declined while remaining steady among singles.
“American adults had sex about seven times per year less often in the early 2010s (vs. the early 1990s) and about nine times a year less often than in the late 1990s,” the paper reads. “As recently as 2002, the average adult American had sex approximately 64 times a year, but by 2014 that declined to about 53 times a year.”
The drop in sexual frequency, according to the study that analyzed data from 1989 through 2014, was largest among those with a college degree (15 fewer times annually), people living in the South (about 13 fewer times per year) and those married or divorced (roughly 11 times fewer each year).
Overall, younger people had sex more often than their older counterparts and men enjoyed more sex than women.
“While those in their 20s had sex more than 80 times per year, this declined to about 60 times a year by 45 and 20 times a year by 65,” according to the study. “For each year of age after the peak in sexual frequency at 25, participants reported having sex 1.18 fewer times per year. Put another way, individuals over age 25 have sex 96.8 percent as often as the previous year (so with each year of age after 25, the number of sex acts per year declined by 3.2 percent.)”
The lower marriage rate in recent years is a key factor to the decline, since married people have sex more consistently than unmarried people, according to the study’s conclusion.
“In addition, those with steady partners are having less sex frequently,” the study reads. “The decline in sexual frequency thus appears to be rooted in twin trends: Americans with steady partners are both fewer in number and have sex less often.”
So, what’s behind less action in the bedroom?
Aside from fewer people married or living with a partner (66 percent in 1986 versus 59 percent in 2014), the study noted a decline in the so-called “marriage advantage,” and other possible factors like more options for other forms of entertainment, including streaming video and social media. The study also noted higher rates of depression and the “perfect storm” awaiting married couples who waited to have children, both of which seemingly decreases sexual frequency.
“I would say the number one cause for a lack of sex is fatigue,” Pepper Schwartz, a sociology professor at the University of Washington, told the Washington Post, which first reported the findings. “You have many more women and men working to create a two-income family to stay middle class or above … People’s minds are occupied with things other than the physical connection, and that has increased in modern life, and especially from the ’80s and ’90s and forward.”