Americans Aren't Fucking Like They Used to, Says Study

Last year, Dr. Jean Twenge published a study that found millennials today had significantly fewer sexual partners than members of Gen X or baby boomers. Now, Twenge is back with a new study in Archives of Sexual Behavior, and it looks like millennials aren't the only group not having sex—US adults today are banging a whole lot less than they were 25 years ago.

Twenge (who teaches at San Diego State University and wrote the book Generation Me) worked with her team to tabulate data from the General Social Survey between 1989 and 2014. They found that Americans over the age of 18 had sex between seven and nine fewer times per year in 2014 than they did in the 90s. Back then, people were smashing 62 times a year on average. Now that number is down to 53 times a year, or about once a week. Researchers saw a drop regardless of age, race, gender, and religion.

At least one reason adults are having less sex could be the fact that more Americans are single now, which is an obvious obstacle if there's not someone ready, willing, and able in the next room. In 2014, only 59 percent of Americans were living with a partner, compared to 66 percent in 1986. Married people are also just less willing to bone—husbands and wives were having sex just 55 times a year in 2014 on average, compared to 73 times in 1990. In fact, 2014 saw single people having more sex than their married counterparts, at an average of 59 times a year.

Twenge has some theories as to why there seems to be such a steep, general drop off for all adults today. Sex is now competing with our cellphones, the internet, and digital streaming services to occupy our attention—it's no longer just a fun thing adults do to pass the time. It may also just be garden variety fatigue, considering more couples feature two working individuals today. Additionally, people are more depressed than they used to be, which could be a direct cause or an effect.

"Are they less happy and thus having less sex or are they having less sex and therefore less happy? It's probably some of both," Twenge told the Washington Post.

While those in their 20s are still having sex more than any other age group—at about 80 times per year in 2014—they're getting it on a lot less than previous generations did at the same age. People born in the 1990s were having the least amount of sex in their 20s, whereas people born in the 1930s had the most. Apparently our grandparents really knew how to get busy.

It's not clear what all these sexless nights will do to the country's population, but it might be time America takes a page out of Spain's book and appoint a special Secretary of Sex to get us back on track again.