Government Study Outlines American Sexual Habits

This past Friday, the National Center for Health Statistics, a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released the results of a survey-study concerning the sexual habits and drug use patterns of Americans. The nationwide study is based on data collected from 1999 to 2002. For the purposes of this blog entry, I will confine my remarks to the data about sex, which is confined to heterosexuals.

Unlike previous studies of this nature, this most current survey was conducted using computers, rather than in face-to-face interviews as in years past. The use of computers was hoped to provide participants with more privacy, which would tend to result in more honest answers, free from the fear of disapproval.

As was expected men tended to have had more sexual partners than women, with 29 percent of American men report having 15 or more female sexual partners in a lifetime, while only 9 percent of women report having sex with 15 or more men.

The median number of lifetime female sexual partners for men was seven; the median number of male partners for women was four.

Among the findings:

• About 96 percent of U.S. adults have had sex.
• Sixteen percent of adults first had sex before age 15, while 15 percent abstained from sex until at least age 21.
• The proportion of adults who first had sex before age 15 was highest for non-Hispanic blacks (28 percent) compared to 14 percent for both Mexican-Americans and non-Hispanic whites.
• Six percent of blacks abstained from sex until age 21 or older, fewer than Mexican-Americans (17 percent) or non-Hispanic whites (15 percent).
• Black men and women were more likely to report having 15 or more partners in a lifetime (46 percent and 13 percent, respectively) than other racial or ethnic groups.
• Seventeen percent of men and 10 percent of women reported having two or more sexual partners in the past year.
• Twenty-five percent of women and 17 percent of men reporting having no more than one partner of the other sex in their lifetime.
• 11 percent of never-married adults had remained chaste

In an online survey conduced on the MSNBC website in relation to this story, the numbers are similar:

Live Vote

	Guys: How many sexual partners have you had? * 19906 responses
	5 or less 29%
	6 to 10 14%
	11 to 20 16%
	21 to 50 21%
	I've lost track. 15%
	I'm a virgin. 4.9%
	Ladies: What about you? * 13007 responses
	5 or less 38%
	6 to 10 17%
	11 to 20 16%
	21 to 50 15%
	I've lost track. 7.9%
	I'm a virgin. 5.7%

As you can see, I'm in the category with 15 percent of all men and 7.9 percents of all women in the "I've lost track" category. I have to say I'm surprised to see so many people, both men and women in the five partners or fewer category.