Roughly 50% to 60% of the global adult population is sexually active at any given time, though that number shifts dramatically depending on age, gender, and how “sexually active” is defined. In the U.S., about 30% of high school students have ever had sex, while the vast majority of adults in their 20s through 50s are sexually active. The numbers decline gradually after 60 but never drop to zero.
How “Sexually Active” Is Defined
There’s no single agreed-upon definition, which is why statistics on this topic vary so much. In most large surveys, researchers ask whether someone has had sexual intercourse within the past 3 months, 6 months, or 12 months. The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, for example, counts high school students as “currently sexually active” if they’ve had intercourse in the past three months. Clinical screening guidelines often use a six-month window. When you see a statistic claiming a certain percentage of people are sexually active, the timeframe behind that number matters enormously. Someone who had sex once in the past year looks the same in the data as someone who has sex three times a week.
Teens and Young Adults
Among U.S. high school students, 30% reported ever having had sexual intercourse in 2021, with nearly one in four having sex in the past three months, according to the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey. That’s a significant decline from earlier generations. In the 1990s, more than half of high school students reported having had sex.
Young adults aged 18 to 29 are also having less sex than they used to. In 2010, 12% of 18-to-29-year-olds reported having no sex in the past year. By 2024, that figure had roughly doubled to 24%. This trend, sometimes called the “sex recession,” has been linked to a mix of factors: more time spent on screens, delayed milestones like moving out and partnering up, increased anxiety and depression rates, and shifting social norms around dating.
Adults in Their 20s Through 40s
A 2020 survey of over 9,500 people broke down how often adults have sex on at least a weekly basis. Among 18-to-24-year-olds, 37% of men and 52% of women reported weekly sex. That gap narrowed with age: by 25 to 34, about half of both men (50%) and women (54%) were having sex at least once a week. The pattern held steady for the 35-to-44 age group, with 50% of men and 53% of women reporting weekly frequency.
These numbers only capture weekly activity, so the total percentage who are sexually active at all (even occasionally) is considerably higher. Most estimates place the share of adults aged 25 to 50 who have had at least one sexual partner in the past year somewhere between 75% and 85%.
Sexual Activity After 60
Sex doesn’t stop at retirement. A large English study found that 86% of men and 60% of women aged 60 to 69 were sexually active. Those numbers decline with each decade but remain substantial: 59% of men and 34% of women aged 70 to 79 reported ongoing sexual activity, as did 31% of men and 14% of women aged 80 and older. Even among people over 90, a Swedish study found that 10% were still sexually active.
The gender gap in these older age groups is partly explained by differences in life expectancy and partner availability. Women are more likely to outlive their partners, and older adults who are widowed or single are less likely to report sexual activity regardless of desire or physical ability. Health conditions, medications, and hormonal changes also play a role, but they reduce frequency more often than they eliminate sexual activity entirely.
Why the Numbers Are Declining
Across nearly every age group, sexual activity rates have trended downward over the past two decades. The sharpest drop has been among young adults, where the percentage reporting no sex in the past year has doubled since 2010. But the decline isn’t limited to the young. Adults in their 30s and 40s also report slightly less frequent sex than the same age groups did a generation ago.
Several forces are converging. Young people are partnering later, with the median age of first marriage climbing steadily. Digital entertainment competes for time that might otherwise be spent socializing. Economic pressures like housing costs keep more young adults living with parents, which correlates with lower rates of sexual activity. And cultural attitudes have shifted in ways that make some people more comfortable opting out of sex altogether, rather than treating it as an expected milestone.
Global Estimates
Worldwide, the percentage of the population that is sexually active varies by region but clusters in a surprisingly narrow range. Rough estimates for 2023 place North America at around 60%, Latin America at 58%, Europe and Africa at about 55%, and Asia at roughly 50%. These figures account for the full population, including children and elderly adults who aren’t sexually active, which pulls the overall percentages down from what you’d see if you only counted adults of reproductive age.
Cultural, religious, and economic factors create wide variation within these regions. Countries with younger average populations tend to have higher overall rates of sexual activity simply because a larger share of their population falls within the most sexually active age range. Access to privacy, contraception, and social freedom to form relationships all influence these numbers as well.