Statistics on 18-24 years olds in Britain reveal how often young people are having sex. The data shows that one third of young adults are sexually active, with 17 percent having had sex at least three times in the last week. On the other hand, a third of 18-24 year olds report that they are not sexually active, and one fifth claim to be not sexually active, but have had sex in the past week. The survey results are from the 1st February 2023, as part of a longitudinal survey measuring sexual activity in British adults from 2019. Overall, they reveal interesting insights into how often young British adults the age of most university students, are having (or not having) sex.
When compared with the rest of the population, young British adults had more regular sex (three times a week) in the last week than other age groups (see below). When asked how often they had sex in the last week, four percent claimed to have sex at least seven times, five percent between four and six times, and 17 percent having had sex once or twice.
This is probably not that surprising, given how young people stereotypically have higher sex drives.
But what was surprising was that this age group was also the highest for not being sexually active. The difference between groups is marginal, however it’s still somewhat unexpected.
Diving deeper into the data, it also turns out that young British adults are also the smallest percentage for participants who claim to be not sexually active, but have had sex in the past week.
As you can see, there are a lot more 25-49 year olds who feel they are not sexually active despite having sexual encounters in the prior week. Perhaps young people define sexually active more definitively; having lots of it or none of it.
Finally, we compared whether the pandemic had any impact on student’s and young adults’ sex lives. The survey captured data from as early as 2019, which represents a pre-pandemic lifestyle. We analysed data from the 3rd February 2020 (pre-lockdown) and the 1st February 2023 (now) to find out how often young people in Britain are having sex. The data shows that there is a five percent difference on how many young adults are had sex frequently in the week before, with 16 percent having had sex three times a week or more in Feb 2020, and 11 percent in Feb 2023. However, the data didn’t change too much for the other categories (less than five percent difference), showing that the pandemic didn’t affect sex lives that badly!
If maintaining a healthy sex life is important to you, which not check out which unis where students are having the most sex!
Last Updated on August 30, 2024
Published on February 6, 2023
