Why are Millennials turning their backs on sex?

Millennials are less likely to have had sex than any generation since the 1920s, according to a new study.

Researchers at San Diego State University found 15 per cent of 20 to 24-year-olds said they had not had a sexual partner since they were 18, a figure that dropped to six per cent for their predecessors, Generation X.

Strikingly, the last generation of young people with a higher rate of sexual abstinence was in the 1920s.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The researchers concluded this was because young people are spending more time online rather than interacting directly with others.

Professor Jean Twenge, a psychologist at the university, said online dating apps should "in theory" help Millennials find sexual partners more easily. "However, technology may have the opposite effect if young people are spending so much time online that they interact less in person, and thus don't have sex," she added.

Millennials are "very interested in safety", which means they drink less alcohol and seek "safe spaces" on campus, Twenge continued. "This is a very risk-averse generation and that attitude may be influencing their sexual choices," she said.

Twenge concluded that the trend is one of mixed blessings for twentysomethings: "It's good news for sexual and emotional health. But if young adults forgo sex completely, they may be missing out on some of the advantages of an adult romantic relationship."

The researchers, who posted their findings in Archives of Sexual Behavior, analysed data from 26,707 respondents to the General Social Survey, which has been collecting data on social attitudes in the US since the 1970s.