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By Marni Rose McFall
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The number of Americans having sex has dropped to record lows, signaling a potential sex recession, according to a recent study from the Institute for Family Studies (IFS).
The IFS surveyed 1,000 men and women and found that less than half (37 percent) were having sex weekly, compared to 55 percent in 1990.
Why It Matters
America's fertility rate is projected to average 1.6 births per woman over the next three decades, according to the Congressional Budget Office's most recent forecast released this year. This number is well below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman required to maintain a stable population without immigration.
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There has been a documented dip in young people having sex. In a 2022 nationally representative U.S. survey of 2,000 adults from the Kinsey Institute and Lovehoney, one in four Gen Z adults said they had yet to have partnered sex. There was also a pronounced gender divide in this study, with men being more likely than women to report never having had partnered sex (one in three men vs. one in five women).
What To Know
The IFS study found that at the turn of the millennium, the number of Americans having sex started to dip, and that this number has continued to decline since.
In an email shared with Newsweek, Nicholas H. Wolfinger, a professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Studies at the University of Utah, said: "It makes sense to separate the sex recession into two separate but related phenomena: a long-term decline in the percentage of people who are married or in live-in relationships, and sexual activity. One of the biggest predictors of sex is simply whether you live with someone."
A contributing factor to this is the fact that young people are generally having less sex than previous generations. The IFS study states that over a ten-year period, from 2014 to 2024, the share of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 who were living with a partner, either married or unmarried, dropped from 42 percent to 32 percent, citing data from the General Social Survey (GSS).
The amount of 'sexlessness,' defined as having had no sex in the past year, has increased among young adults, according to the IFS. Citing data from the GSS, they reported that from 2010 to 2024, the number of young adults who reported not having sex doubled from 12 to 24 percent.
But it's not just young adults who are being impacted. The IFS study states that married adults are more likely to have sex than their unmarried peers: 46 percent of married men and women aged 18 to 64 have sex each week, compared to 34 percent of their unmarried peers.
However, there is still a decline among this demographic. Between 1996 and 2008, 59 percent of married adults aged 18 to 64 reported having sex once a week or more. This number dropped to 49 percent from 2010 to 2024.
Newsweek also spoke with Mark Regnerus, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, about the potential sex recession.
"It's happening across the West, wherever people are replacing the time historically spent with others with new digital habits," Regnerus said.
"It's poignantly affecting our evening behaviors, whether that's pursuing someone on a date or giving attention and affection to a spouse," he said. "The smartphone is generating new and interesting content, which is slowly but surely supplanting the people around us. It's the new fertility control regime, which wasn't even intended. Expect more solitary living and a decline in local, state, and national unity. It's happening already."
What People Are Saying
Nicholas H. Wolfinger of the University of Utah told Newsweek: "No one knows for sure why fewer people are having sex (and more broadly, it's always impossible to definitively explain a secular trend). Testosterone levels have been declining for years. People may be too busy looking at their phones. No one really knows for sure…These data do suggest that some older people got out of the habit of dating and sex during COVID, and never picked up where they left off; they just got used to being single and celibate."
Mark Regnerus, a professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, told Newsweek: "We're becoming dull, boring to each other. Of course it heightens the risk of being electronically 'led'—away from human contact, away from those we have long trusted, and toward a world of disconnected authorities. Whenever family's natural authority has been usurped, bad things tend to result. Sadly, the family is being complicit this time around. We're letting this happen."
Vice President JD Vance, in January: "We failed a generation not only by permitting a culture of abortion on demand but also by neglecting to help young parents achieve the ingredients they need to lead a happy and meaningful life. Our society has failed to recognize the obligation that one generation has to another as a core part of living in a society. So let me say very simply, I want more babies in the United States of America."
What's Next
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) issued a warning of a global birth rate crisis in June of this year. Whether the sex recession impacting America will continue, and how it may be resolved, remains to be seen.
Update 09/02/25, 04:15 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Nicholas H. Wolfinger.
Update 09/02/25, 12:47 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Mark Regnerus.
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