People Are Having Less Sex Than They Used To

If you have the impression you’re having less sex than you used to, don’t feel bad. It may just be a symptom of an overall trend! Or at least that’s what the findings of the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior are saying. According to their research, people have sex around nine fewer times per year than they did in the 1990s.

Two decades ago, Americans had sex an average of 60-62 times per year. In 2014, that number dwindled to just 53. Explanations for this dip have varied — the study’s authors suggested that an increase in depression and unhappiness might be the cause. “Are they less happy and thus having less sex, or are they having less sex and therefore less happy? It’s probably some of both,” researcher and author Jean M. Twenge told the Washington Post. “We do know that sexual frequency is linked to marital satisfaction, so overall if you have fewer people having sex, you could have people who are less happy and less satisfied with that relationship.”

The economy is another factor, according to Twenge. “Young men’s employment has continued to decline,” Twenge was quoted as saying in an article from HowStuffWorks.com. “When young men aren’t working, a lot of times that means they’re not having sex. They’re not getting married and not living together with someone, because they don’t have a job and that confers status.”

The University of Washington’s Pepper Schwartz has offered a more conventional explanation for the downturn: we’re just too tired out for sex. “I would say the number one cause for a lack of sex is fatigue, [with] many more women and men working to create a two-income family to stay middle class or above,” she told the Post. “People’s minds are occupied with things other than the physical connection, and that has increased in modern life, and especially from the ’80s and ’90s and forward.”

Featured image: Unsplash/Tao Heftiba