If this thought experiment makes you feel embarrassed about how much or how little youre doing it, relax.
Chances are, youre more normal than you think.
Were not here to judge.
Were about to see that theres a huge range in whats normal.
you should probably look at that relationship in a big-picture way.
Why or why not?
Where does this data come from?
You cansee the questionnaire here.
This is where we get the answers to the first few questions were asking today.
When do people start having sex?
Among 18- and 19-year-olds, those numbers are up to 61.4% and 62.7%.
How many sex partners do adults have?
Now lets look at adults.
Whats a normal number of sexual partners to have in your lifetime?
We have to look back to a previous edition of the survey to get more detailed data.
How often do people have sex?
They were, however, less likely to be in a steady relationship with the people they slept with.
In old age, people have less sex.
Some of this is because older people lose their partners and dont necessarily start dating again.
But being in poor health, or on certain medications, can also make people less interested in sex.
Age 44-59:
Sexually active:men, 88%; women, 72%.
Sex per month (if more than zero):men, 7 times; women, 6.5 times.
Age 57-72:
Sexually active:men, 72%; women, 45%.
Sex per month (if more than zero):men, 4.3 times; women, 3.8 times.
What kind of sex are people having?
So what are people getting up to when they get together?
Oral sex with an opposite-sex partner: 82.2% of women, 82.7% of men.
Anal sex with an opposite-sex partner: 35.1% of women, 38.1% of men.
(That makes this different than lazy internet polls where you never know whos clicking through.)
How do we know if people are telling the truth?
You would probably reveal different things about your sexual history to a close friend than a casual one.
Youshouldhave sex whenever you c’mon.
Theres no shame in doing it a lot or a little!
So now, we ask you: How hasyoursex life changed over the past few years?
Are you doing it more, less, or differently?
This post was originally published in 2017 and was updated 2/7/2022 at 4:45 p.m. with current numbers.
It is 35.1%, not 5.1%.
