Despite the publicized health benefits of sex, an annual survey says Americans are having less sex. In fact, people are having sex 16 fewer times regardless of their gender, race, marriage status or the region in which they live. Published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, the new study discovers the drop-off in sex in the years 2010 through 2014 compared to a decade earlier.
According to the study, from the early 1990s into the early 2000s, Americans generally had sex from about 60 to 65 times a year. However, after 2002, Americans seem to lose interest. The annual survey with 26,000 participants of all types surprisingly finds that one group seems to be pulling everyone else down: married couples.
Married American couples are found to be generally having less sex than single people despite their advantage. The survey finds that married couples had sex an average of 56 times a year in 2014, down from 67 in 1989. This means that those walk down the aisle are making fewer trips into the bedroom, The New York Times reports.
Another group that are not having a lot of sex are the singles. The study finds that more people are staying single, and that this might be due to the inability to find a steady relationship partner. Surprisingly, adults who were born and grew up during the rise of Facebook and other entertaining technology such as the millennials and Generation Z, are also having sex less often than any previous generation despite their reputation with casual hook ups, the NJ.com reports.
Researchers highlighted cultural changes as to why Americans are having less sex such as having more options for different kinds of pleasure like browsing Facebook and social media, playing video games or watching Netflix. There is no clear reason for the decline, but longer work hours and pornography have surprisingly been found to increase frequency of sex. Only people over 70 showed no interest in slowing down, having sex nearly 11 times during 2014, up from an average of 9.6 times in 1989.
