I thought you guys would find this interesting. The GSS recently published their latest stats on the rate of sexlessness among those younger then 35. It again shows the rate of sexlessness is rising among young people, with rate nearly tripling between 2008-2021.

The question of course is why, and if this is even a problem. IFS which is a conservative site that promotes family values btw) put forth a couple of interesting theories on why sexlessness is rising.

  1. One is because of delayed marriage:

Whereas sexlessness overall has about doubled since the 2000s, sexlessness among the never married has only risen from about 20% to between 25% and 30%, an increase of a quarter to half. So there have been at least two separate trends related to rising sexlessness: one is delayed marriage, and the other is rising sexlessness among the never married. That second trend is of particular interest and worth investigating further: among what groups of never-married people is sexlessness rising the most?

  1. Growing conservative sentiment regarding casual sex or sex outside of marriage. I found this theory the most interesting since it’s generally thought that the younger generation is more liberal in this regard. However, the survey GSS does show there is a strong correlation between disapproving of premarital sex and self reporting having not had sex within the past year.

As the figure illustrates, young adults who believe premarital sex is wrong have consistently been about two to three times as likely to be sexually abstinent for several decades (in the 2021 GSS, rates of sexual abstinence are 52% vs. 16%).

They also found those who attended religious service frequently saw the biggest increase in self reported sexlessness:

Since 2008, among never-married individuals under age 35 who attend religious services more than monthly, the rate of sexlessness has risen from about 20% to nearly 60% in 2021. Among their less religious peers, sexlessness has risen from around 10% in 2008 to 20% in 2021.

I thought you guys would also find this stat interesting, contrary to popular belief, there isn’t a link between porn usage and sexlessness:

Contrary to popular conception that pornography is replacing sexual encounters, pornography users are more likely to report having sex, and the rise in sexlessness has been similar among both pornography users and non-users. In 2021, about 23% of never-married under 35-year-olds who reported watching pornography had not had sex in the past year, versus 38% of those who did not watch pornography. So rising sexlessness is probably not closely related to pornography use, although it is the case that self-reported pornography usage has risen: the share of never-married under 35-year-olds who reported viewing porn rose from around 40% in the early 1990s, to 50% in the 2000s, to almost 60% in 2021.

So what do you guys think? I think other things like COVID which was not touched upon in the article also play a role but I’m curious to get your guys thoughts.