The Sex Recession: The Share of Americans Having Regular Sex Keeps Dropping

The Sex Recession: The Share of Americans Having Regular Sex Keeps Dropping

By Grant Bailey and Brad Wilcox, The Institute for Family Studies

August 30, 2025

Between trade wars and armed conflicts across the world, there is talk of an impending economic downturn. And while we at the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) are not equipped to forecast an economic recession, we can document a recession that already has America in its grips: the sex recession.

• Married adults have markedly more sex than their unmarried peers, but the sex recession is also making inroads among married couples.

• When it comes to sexlessness (“no sex in the last year”) among young adults, the biggest change comes post-2010.

• Between 2010 and 2019, the average time young adults spent with friends in a given week fell by nearly 50%, from 12.8 hours to just 6.5 hours.

Americans are having a record low amount of sex. We find that in 1990, 55% of adults ages 18–64 reported having sex weekly, according to the General Social Survey (GSS). But around the turn of the millennium, that number began to dip: by 2010, less than half reported having sex weekly, and by 2024, of the more than 1,000 men and women queried on this topic by the GSS, that number had fallen to just 37 percent.

The sex recession has been documented previously, especially here at IFS. In 2016, Jean Twenge found that the decline is largely a cohort effect — younger generations are having less sex than their predecessors did. The causes? A decline in steady partnering, especially in marriage, and a decline in sexual frequency within couples.

Twenge’s findings largely hold true today. Between 2014 and 2024, the share of young adults, ages 18–29, who reported living with a partner, both married and unmarried, fell 10 percentage points, from 42% to 32%, according to the GSS. Because partnered adults have the most consistent sex, and more young men and women are flying solo, the share of young adults who are having regular sex keeps falling.

When it comes to sexlessness (“no sex in the last year”) among young adults, the biggest change comes post-2010. Prior and up to 2010, the share of young adults, ages 18-29, who reported not having sex held steady around 15 percent. But from 2010 to 2024, the share doubled, from 12% to 24% in the GSS.

This “hockey-stick” shape resembles the pattern identified by Jonathon Haidt in The Anxious Generation. In his book, Haidt calls the period of 2010 to 2015 the “Great Rewiring.” Adolescents going through puberty over this period were subject to all-pervasive digital media, kicked off by the smartphone proliferation of the late 2000s. Childhood became increasingly digital. Kids were not, consequently, exposed to nearly as much socialization as earlier generations. The digital media revolution left in its wake well documented increases in pathologies like anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide.

The Great Rewiring of the early 2010s saw a rising generation of hermits. Notably, most of the decline in socialization actually happened prior to the pandemic. Between 2010 and 2019, the average time young adults spent with friends in a given week fell by nearly 50%, from 12.8 hours to just 6.5 hours. The pandemic pushed this number even lower, to 4.2 hours a week with friends. And while there has been a slight increase since, we seem to have found a new norm. Young adults spent just 5.1 hours with friends in a given week in 2024.

It's no surprise that this period is also marked by an increase in sexlessness. More time devoted to smart phones, social media, pornography, and gaming meant that young adults had fewer opportunities to develop the social skills needed to form relationships and spent less time in social settings—such as parties—that would facilitate romantic relationships. The negative consequences of gaming may also extend to young men’s declining participation in the workforce, which reduces their appeal on the mating market. Indeed, one recent study finds

the decline in the formation of romantic relationships and decreasing alcohol consumption are the most important [causes of falling young adult sex], but declining earnings and increasing use of computer games also play important roles.

This much is clear: young adults are spending less time dating, mating, and getting married, with obvious implications for sex. Indeed, the lack of marriage is why young adults face the brunt of the sex recession. The data tell us that married adults have markedly more sex than their unmarried peers: 46% of married men and women, ages 18-64, have weekly sex compared to about 34% of their unmarried peers.

While the decline in sex has been most acute among younger generations, older adults have not been left unscathed. And notably, the sex recession is making inroads among married couples. Between 1996 and 2008, 59% of married adults, ages 18-64, reported having sex once a week or more. That number fell to 49% for the period of 2010 to 2024. Married couples are seeing declines in sexual frequency across age groups.

It's no coincidence that a decline in marital sex follows the digital revolution. Today’s electronic opiates not only depress partnering and marriage among young adults—they also weaken already established relationships. A 2023 IFS study found that married adults reported lower sexual frequency when their spouse substituted couple time for phone or computer use. Furthermore, bedtime procrastination is a rising habit. So-called bedtime procrastinators spend two hours using some form of digital media in the three hours leading up to sleep. It’s not surprising that more social media, Netflix, or gaming on the part of spouses translates to less intimacy.

The findings in this IFS research brief matter because regular sex is linked to better health, higher quality marriages, and greater happiness. We are, as Aristotle noted, social animals, real embodied creatures who flourish from real world interactions with others. And even though many of us are tempted nowadays to live out the lion’s share of our lives, including our sexual lives, in the virtual world, the truth is that we thrive when we have regular opportunities to spend time with other human beings, physically. That’s why America should be just as concerned about the sex recession as any other.

Grant Bailey is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Family Studies. Brad Wilcox is Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Family Studies.