For starters that study did not say 28% of men between the ages 18-30 are virgins but that 28% did not have sex within the last year. The data is in fact not reliable due to selection effect and the sample size is too small to make broad generalizations about the sexual habits of young people. Simon DeDeo has done a good job of pointing out the error bars in the statistics.

The study ultimately found that in 2018 31/136 men between the ages 18-30 that they surveyed reported having no sexual partners in past year(which translates to 22% not 28% the numbers are weighted by GSS). How they ask the question will also affect the results, for example only 2% of young men reported not having sex in 2012, that was due to the wording of the question which is why the year 2012 is omitted from the graph.

The GSS doesn't survey individuals living in dorms and college attendance has increased ~50% since the mid 90s. Considering that fact isn't there increasing risk of bias in GSS measures of sex among youth?

This does not mean we should dismiss any sexual problems or struggles young men are having but it’s important to not take any study at face value just because it confirms your belief.

Edit: I want to be clear I am talking about the GSS survey which measures sexual frequency. Below I have attached the error bars in the data which suggest 2018 may be outlier. I have also attached the raw data below. The numbers in GSS are weighted. [IMG]http://i66.tinypic.com/nqb8ee.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i66.tinypic.com/rmp4bo.png[/IMG]

Edit: I also want to add Philip Cohen’s analysis of GSS unweighted data.

[IMG]http://i64.tinypic.com/fmt1xi.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i68.tinypic.com/68g9yr.png[/IMG]

Edit: I think I should been more clear, the first image I posted is on the GSS survey which claims 27% of men are virgins. The second is the raw data for another GSS survey that found 28% of men have not had sex in the past year.

The first graph is unreliable and driven by selection effects. You can see this in actual data because Simon DeDeo plotted 95% confidence bars—which are typically underestimated because of weighting.

Edit: One more thing that a lot of people are glossing over is that the 2012 data from GSS indicates that only 2% of men surveyed claimed they did not have sex within the last year, the results are omitted from the graph due to the fact the question survey for that year was different. It actually appears that between 2008-2010 there was drop off in the number of men not reporting to have sex. The GSS is not the greatest dataset. They've randomly changed up the survey design, switched to a rotating panel and back to a cross-section, and so on. I'm not convinced that these rates measured 2014-2018 are consistent with those up to 2010.

[IMG]http://i67.tinypic.com/2ntirdc.jpg[/IMG]