New | American Millennials having less sex: study

Young people today are not having as much sex as previous generations, despite the widespread availability of dating sites and apps and more accepting attitudes about premarital sex, researchers said Tuesday.

The study focused on millennials, the generation of people born in the 1990s, and found they were the most sexually inactive group since the Depression era.

“The only other generation that showed a higher rate of sexual inactivity were those born in the 1920s,” said the study by researchers at Florida Atlantic University and published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.

The report found that among Americans aged 20 to 24, those born in the early 1990s were significantly more likely to report no sexual partners after age 18 than Gen X’ers born in the late 1960s.

Fifteen per cent of 20- to 24-year-old American millennials reported having no sexual partners since turning 18, compared to six per cent of those born in the 1960s.

“This study really contradicts the widespread notion that millennials are the ‘hookup’ generation, which is popularised by dating apps like ‘Tinder’ and others, suggesting that they are just looking for quick relationships and frequent casual sex,” said co-author Ryne Sherman, associate professor of psychology in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at Florida Atlantic University.

“Our data show that this doesn’t seem to be the case at all and that millennials are not more promiscuous than their predecessors.”