According to the results of the General Social Survey, a large-scale sociological survey in the United States, in 2010, 12% of respondents aged 18 to 29 years old reported that they had not had sex in the past year. By 2024, this figure has doubled.

Similar declines in sexual activity among young people have been observed in high-income countries such as Australia and Germany. But the trend is most noticeable in Japan: a recent survey found that about half of Japanese people do not have sexual experience before the age of 25. This may also explain why deaths in Japan outnumbered births by nearly a million in 2024, in what then-Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba called a “silent emergency.”

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So what’s going on and is this really a crisis? The magazine looked into the problem New Scientist.

Of course, the number of times people have sex has always fluctuated, says Professor Kay Wellings of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In the 1950s, the norm was to wait until marriage, then when birth control pills came out in the 1960s, “there was talk of a kind of ‘free cheese’—the ability to have sex without consequences.” The onset of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s made people reserved, she adds.

“But I believe that in the 90s the attitude changed, and sex itself began to be encouraged,” says the professor.

There is no simple explanation

There is no single, simple explanation for the current decline in sexual activity among young people. Some attribute this to the difficult economic situation, which makes it difficult to gain financial independence. For example, in 2023, 18% of Americans aged 25 to 34 lived in their parents’ home, up from 9% in 2000.

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“Living with your parents is not the best environment for an active sex life,” admits Luke Branning from the University of Leeds.

Countries like the UK also have high youth unemployment rates. This partly explains why sexual abstinence is slightly common among boys than among girls—and is likely to occur if the young person is unemployed or has a low income.

“It shouldn’t be that a man’s earning power or financial status is considered attractive, but if you look at the research, it seems to be a universal pattern,” says Peter Ueda of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

Another factor may be the rise in sobriety – this makes young people stressed. Over the past two decades, the percentage of Americans 18-34 who drink alcohol has fallen from 72% to 62%, while the rate among people 55 and older has risen from 49% to 59%, according to Gallup.

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“We’re getting a ‘sensible generation’ of young people who drink less, do drugs less (and) have less sex,” Wellings says.

Technology also plays a significant role.Younger generations seem to have traded face-to-face communication for digital devices, and intimacy typically requires physical contact.

“Generation Z is called the most socialized, but also the loneliest, because they are really constantly connected, but mainly through screens,” says Natasha McKeever from the University of Leeds. “This can make face-to-face interactions stressful for them.”

In theory, dating apps should make it easier to find partners, but their widespread use since the early 2010s has not led to an increase in the number of sexual encounters among young people.

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“These apps were not designed to get people to actually connect, but to get them hooked on the apps themselves,” explains András Költo from the University of Ireland Galway.

Mental health problems may also contribute to decreased sexual activity, with a report in The Lancet Psychiatry warning that we have “entered a dangerous phase” with these problems among young people.

“If a person isn’t feeling well, they may not have the mental energy to have sex,” Branning says.

Anxiety can even create a vicious cycle. “Sex can be a scary, stressful experience, and the less you do it, the less comfortable you feel,” McKeever adds. “So if people don’t have intimacy for a long time, they can get to the point where they really want sex (but) have a lot of anxiety.”

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Indeed, about half of women and two-thirds of men admit that they would like to have sex often.

Quality of life

But not all young people suffer from this situation, if they themselves are happy with it. For example, a study of heterosexual Japanese 18–39 year olds found that about half of the non-relationship respondents were not interested in romantic relationships.

“Young people today probably have options for activities than in the past,” McKeever says. — Traveling has become much easier, a wider choice of professions is open. Sex is not the only pleasure in life.”

This trend can also be explained by a decrease in the stigma surrounding those who do not want to have sex, McKeever continues. This may be due to the growing focus on consent in the wake of the #MeToo movement, or the fact that young people today are finding it easier to identify as asexual.

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“When I was younger, I think a lot of people had sex simply because they thought it was part of being cool or some kind of rite of passage into adulthood. Now young people understand themselves better,” she believes.

We should not forget that the results of studies based on questionnaires or self-reports are inaccurate. Respondents may exaggerate or understate their experiences depending on whether they are interviewed in person or through an online questionnaire, as well as social taboos.

“When taboos are strong in society, people underreport. During periods when this is considered a sign of status, it is overestimated,” says Wellings. In addition, different studies define what “sex” or “young person” is differently.

There is also a problemvolunteer bias– when surveys involve mostly people of a certain type, which makes the results less representative of the entire population.

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“Online samples are often skewed toward the young, single, and childless,” says Lyman Stone of the Virginia Institute for Family Research.

What’s next

If you don’t strive for accuracy, the trend is obvious: today’s youth have less sex than previous generations at their age. As in Japan, this coincided with record low birth rates in the UK and US. But researchers see no reason to worry about the future of the human population.

“A decline in sexual activity among teenagers will certainly not spell the end of the human race,” says Kelto.

“I don’t think we have evidence that the situation (in the West) is a problem any ,” echoes McKeever.

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But if politicians are concerned about the lack of sex, there are several solutions. “The fact that young people are having sex less often than a few decades ago is a symptom of epidemics such as social exclusion and the high cost of living and housing. Politicians should address these issues, and sex will improve on its own,” concluded Kelto.