The share of young adults who say they have not had sex in the last year has skyrocketed in the past decade, while the virginity rate for young adult males has more than doubled, according to a recent data analysis.
Examining findings from the National Survey of Family Growth, Institute for Family Studies Senior Fellow Lyman Stone observes that “all measures of sexlessness rose for both young adult males and females” between an initial survey wave conducted in 2013-2015 and the most recent wave conducted between 2022-2023.
Stone’s analysis focuses on young adults between the ages of 22 and 34, most of whom have finished their education and are beginning their adult lives.
While the dominant majority of young adults surveyed reported having had sex at some point in their lives, nearly a quarter (24%) of young adult males reported not having had sex in the last year, nearly triple the 9% who said the same in 2013-2015. About 13% of young adult females said they hadn’t had sex in the last year, up from 8% in the initial survey wave.
Nearly one-third of young adult males and females said they hadn’t had sex in the last three months — 35% for men and 31% for women. In 2013-2015, 20% of men and 21% of women reported not having sex in the prior three months.
About one out of 10 young males (10%) in this demographic reported being virgins in 2022-2023, up from 4% in 2013-2015. For females, the virginity rate increased from 5% to 7% during that time….
From the Christian Post
Because modern American women aren’t worth the hassle nor aggravation. Marriage is not worth the risk. Women have done this to themselves. Men are not interested in relationships with women anymore because women have become toxic. What rational man wants to waste his time and money pursuing a relationship from a needy, selfish, demanding woman that might — or might not — lead to marriage, and if it does lead to marriage only to have a greater than 50% chance that she will divorce him after the ten year mark so that she can collect the maximum in his retirement benefits, assets, spousal support and child support.
Men have checked out of relationships with women because women have become toxic and the laws favor women when women file for divorce.
Men have realized life is much more peaceful, fulfilling, free, enjoyable, stable, and financially secure without a woman in it.
It’s hilarious to see that when single women hit the wall after age 29 they are miserable and they made themselves miserable but single men are happy without them and don’t want them or need them.
I suspect you’re a male. Is that correct?
Then, be a man. Take a risk. No one said love is easy.
But, it is worth it.
I am happy to read of any increase in virginity among young people. All of us are bombarded with sexual stimuli through our blessed media. It still seems, in what I at least have viewed, that a hop in the sack follows naturally from even chance encounters–almost to the extent that chastity is in fact “contrary to nature.” The message seems to be: “recreational sex is natural owing to the power of sexual attraction.” This is Satan’s natural law– beguiling and intoxicating to the carnally minded. May the percentage of those committed to virginity keep increasing as an expression of fidelity to Our Lord and Our Lady.
Has anyone told James Martin that people can love each other without having sex?
I see that Lyman Stone also wrote an insightful article in 2019 entitled “The Truth About Conservative Protestant Men and Porn”. So it could be that all these new young adult virgins could very well be engaging in regular porn use. It’s a growing problem with young women as well.
The dark, disordered, ignorant, sinful secular world belongs to Satan. I don’t think this article reflects the religious world of devout, young Catholics, who are seeking to follow the Catholic Faith, virgins, with pure minds and pure hearts, as well as pure bodies, wedded first unto Christ, as they should be— seeking good, devout traditional Catholic spouses. They regularly attend Mass (either form, Novus Ordo or Tridentine Latin Mass) and practice traditional Catholic religious devotions– praying the Rosary, attending Eucharistic Adoration, etc.– and they eagerly give their time as volunteers to Pro Life groups, serving the poor, etc. These are very good, devout Catholic young people– the Church of the future. Many of these wonderful, devout Catholic young people have endured great trials, trying to save unborn children from being murdered, down at local Planned Parenthood clinics. They deserve lots of encouragement and praise!
I’m sorry, but contemptus mundi went out with Vatican II and is not any way to bring people to Christ. Lay people live in a secular world that God created as good, as it says at the beginning of the Bible. The world is good. Sure, there is sin, but that’s no reason to flee the world; it’s a reason to evangelize it.
no reason to flee– No. Christ’s followers are not worldly, for any reason or any made-up, phony excuse. The Holy Bible, and Christ’s holy Teachings in it, are exact and eternal. They do not change. You do not understand Vatican II. You are probably listening to non-religious, heretical fools who abuse what they falsely state to be concepts of “Vatican II” — to promote their own unChristian, selfish agendas– like gay-propagandist, Jesuit Fr. James Martin, for example. At Vatican II, Catholics were just encouraged to be ‘Light” and “Salt” for Christ (Matt. 5:13-16) to evangelize non-believers out there in the world. To bring Christ to the dark, fallen, sinful secular world. Christ told everyone, “Repent and follow Me.” Change your life completely, and follow Jesus Christ. Just as the Saints have all done. So—- are you going to do that?
Weddings are a scam. Average cost is now about $40,000. That’s not including the ring, dating, honeymoon, then raising kids and having your wife take away half of what you acquiried when she divorces you.
Do I sound bitter? Yep. With good reason. Young men are starting to learn and realize before getting married what it took older men like me the experience of marriage and divorce to learn. It’s not worth it.
Happy wife happy life? Nope. How about single life, no strife, happy life.
I’m sorry to hear of your experience. May God heal you.
Unless one is called to the single life (which most aren’t), the Lord says, “It is not good for man to be alone.” (Gen. 2:18)
As I’m pretty sure you know, many have a different experience of marriage than was yours. Several studies have shown that married persons are generally happier (and healthier) than single persons. Virginity and chastity, which this article is about, are not contrary to marriage. They’re prior to and part of marriage.
I pray that you will not allow your bitterness to grow. “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” (Hebrews 12:15) God loves you. May you know His peace.
No. You are totally wrong. Your concept of so-called “Marriage” is not Marriage ordained by God, for humanity. Your badly-flawed, corrupt concept is not of God– it is media-drenched in the selfish, disordered, Satanic, sinful, corrupt “Me-Generation’s” Me-ism” of a Godless, sinful, pagan Culture of Death– which is totally against the authentic, holy Sacrament of Marriage, as taught by Christ– straight from God, in Heaven. God’s Plan for Marriage and Children works perfectly! It is holy, Life-giving, health and longevity-giving, and fulfilling for the married couple and their family of children. Christian Marriage, founded in Christ, guides the couple through all the coming hardships of life, too. The two– one Man and one Woman– become one flesh in Christ, the Third Person in the holy, Sacramental marriage. The conjugal act is thus raised from selfish, ugly, pagan, animalistic, concupiscent “Me-ism” filth, to a high and holy level of Sacramental goodness and purity, elevating the cinjugal act of the Man and Wiman– married to one another– one flesh, in Christ.
“I, (__) take you, (__) to be my lawful (husband/wife) to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part.” It takes “Three to Get Married!” Ven. Abp. Fulton J. Sheen wrote a book of that title, long ago. And Catholic school children used to know all of this, raised on the Catechism– tragically neglected, today. We also have married couples who are Saints, to look up to– of course, Jesus’ holy mother and foster-father, Sts. Mary and Joseph, Jesus’ maternal grandparents, Sts. Joachim and Anne, Jesus’ aunt and uncle, Sts. Zechariah and Elizabeth, Sts. Priscilla and Aquila, friends of St. Paul, St. Louis and St. Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, and a great many others. We also have Saints who were married, but their spouses were not Saints– St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, St. Louis IX of France, St. Gianna Beretta Molla, St. Thomas More, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, and a great many others.
I believe we are entering a phase of history in the West in which marriage, raising children, and family life are going to crash. People will spend much of their lives by themselves, interacting with virtual reality and AI even more than they spend time on their phone screens now. AI robotic girlfriends will provide men with sexual release and fantasy fulfillment without the complications and risks of dating or marrying a real woman. When you don’t need the release, just turn the robot off. Women, who have a natural desire to bear children, will lose big, and many will resort to sperm donors and raise kids by themselves. Or they will have an AI robot child that can be the object of their motherly instincts. There will be more AI humanoid robots than human children, eventually.
All disordered, corrupt, destructive, evil, and sinful, “not-meant-to-be” diabolic things on earth– regularly have headed straight into a mighty, disastrous, colassal, unforgettable crash— all through history. Dumb Mankind, and “mankind’s folly!” “Crime does not pay.” Evil and disordered ideas and agendas always go off a stupid, unforseen cliff, somewhere– and crash. This is all 100% predictable. You cannot fool God and God’s creation, which has a pre-set, Divinely-created design, that can be messed with and disordered– but cannot be altered, by stupid Man, according to “Mankind’s Will.” Just like, as we all know– you cannot destroy atoms. Matter cannot be created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction— only rearranged. (The Law of Conservation of Mass) Atoms are the building blocks of matter. First Law of Thermodynamics– energy cannot be created nor destroyed— it can only be changed from one form to another. (Law of Conservation of Energy) Natural systens tend to move towards greater disorder, unless external work is done to maintain order. (Second Law of Thermodynamics) When an ice cube melts, its molecules become more disordered, increasing the overall entropy. (Entropy measures disorder or randomness in a system.) All things– including Mankind– are created according to an exact Divine Design. Mankind had a “Big Fall,” with Adam and Eve, as we all know– thus, disorder, disharmony and sin, and terrible, tragic sufferings and calamities, resulted. Mankind must now work extremely hard, to return to God. Christ was born to help us. We were originally created in a Divine Design, in the Divine Image of God, and intended for an extremely beautiful, happy, Eternal Life in Heaven, in union with God. After Mankind’s latest ridiculous, diabolic, delusional venture “crashes again,” Mankind will just start all over again, and try again– in another era. If Mankind’s next venture is aligned with God’s design– God’s Will– success will result, and much fruit will blossom. Poor Mankind, driven from his/her beautiful homeland of the Garden of Eden– is tragically gullible to massive delusions, and crazy schemes (like Don Quixote) that never work out as planned! But Christ is here, always, to guide us.
God runs the entire universe, unseen. There is a Divine Order and purpose to all things. Even in the very worst cases– the Holocaust, or nuclear bomb– cannot destroy God’s world, nor change His Divine Plans. He keeps on silently working– He is immanent and transcendent, as our Church teaches— and seeks to restore Divine Order to all things, no matter what happens. In the end, we will have exactly as St. John the Evangelist long ago prophesied, in the Book of Revelation/Apocalypse — and it will be marvelous!
You have been anticipated:
In the 1990s sci-fi series “Sea Quest”, the crew travels forward in time to a Los Angeles empty of people, apparently because men and women grew more interested in tech than each other and gave up on reproduction. In the plot, the crew have to locate the remaining man and woman (older teens) and somehow get them to fall in love to restart (reboot?) humanity. I laughed at the time at such an absurd Hollywood scenario. Now I don’t laugh.
To “Catholic Sacramental Marriage in Christ”:
Take a good look at the compassionate response to 40K from Deacon. Anderson and try to learn something from it. He asked for God to heal him. He didn’t castigate a person who is obviously suffering from a deleterious marital experience. It must hurt a lot, and truly the God who knows all will heal him through His mercy.
Solstice– 40K writes, “Weddings are a scam.” The commenter, 40K, sounds like an unusual, hardened, cynical, bitter man, who is probably not a Catholic. He does not sound hurt nor vulnerable, like he has had any tragic experiences with women or with marriage– mourning a break-up and a lost love, or hurting deeply from rejection. He sounds like– Scrooge! With an unusual, “bad attitude problem.” Yes, the Deacon showed compassion, and gave some good advice— but to whom? To a cold-hearted, bitter, hardened, cynical—– “Scrooge?” With a terrible “bad attitude problem” towards women, and towards the Sacrament of Marriage? How awful!
I thought I wanted to get married until I saw what happened to couple of my buddies. Taken to the cleaners. They had Catholic weddings too, so that don’t mean nothing.
To the cleaners– Go to a class at your church, or talk to a good priest about the Catholic Sacrament of Marriage. You will be so glad you did– it’s worth it! Live your own life, and if it is God’s Will– fall in love with a lovely young woman, and marry successfully, with the guidance and support of Christ and His Church. Do not listen to your “buddies.” They have their own problems.
Let’s hear from some wonderful young, happily married, devout Catholic couples, active in their parish church, doing homeschooling or helping with other dedicated Catholic parents, at their parish school! Let’s hear them tell their happy stories about how they met– perhaps a sudden, unexpected Act of God– and then may have attended Mass together, maybe went to Adoration together, regularly, or prayed the Rosary together– or whatever– and fell in love, were chaste until the holy Weddibg Night– and had a beautiful Catholic Wedding! Let’s hear about some of their challenges, too— and some funny mishaps! And how they have rejoiced over the births of their children– and maybe are looking forward to another beautiful baby, soon-to-be-born! Maybe they don’t have much money– but are rich in love and joy, in their happy Catholic family home, with their beloved children! Where are their wonderful stories, in Calif. Catholic Daily?
Chicken Soup for the Trad Soul?
Good point. California Catholic Daily could share the stories of Chris Stefanick and his wife, Lila Rose and her husband or Jackie and Bobby Angel. None of these couples are perfect, yet, we could be inspired and encouraged. But, sadly, I think some who visit this site would then verbally dump on them, for reasons not clear. The Angels recently moved from California to north Texas, where my wife and I heard them speak. Although they’ve been married only a dozen years and we’ve been married nearly 40, we walked away with helpful insights into married life. Matrimony is a Sacrament. That means, in part, that there is grace provided to live it. For those of us who are married, let’s draw on that grace. Saints Basil the Elder and Emmelia of Caesarea and Saints Louis and Marie Azélie Martin and all those who lived their lives on earth as Saintly couples, pray to God for us.
No such thing as “Trad”– a malicious, pejorative term. There are many good, devout, young Catholic families today, who are a huge part of the True Church– and their children are the Church’s future. Their choice of a reverent, respectful, prayerful, orthodox Catholic Mass —- either a reverent Novus Ordo Mass or a beautiful, holy Tridentine Latin Mass– is a personal choice. Both are good. KC Chiefs’ Kicker, Harrison Butker and his wife, Isabelle, and three beautiful children, love the beautiful, holy Tridentine Latin Mass. I saw a wonderful interview recently, on YouTube, of young, Pro Life leader, Lila Rose, interviewing Opus Dei priest, Fr. Luke Mata. Lila was converted to the Catholic Faith as a UCLA college student, at an Opus Dei center. She was raised in a large, evangelical Christian family. Lila is married, and she and her husband, Joe, have two beautiful little boys, and a beautiful little girl, recently born. And they want more children! Beautiful!
There are trads. Nothing wrong with that term. They are pre-Vatican II Catholics. It’s short for Traditional. Stop with the Lila worship. Are you her publicist?
“Trads,” Are you referring to my post, since I referred to Lila Rose and her husband, and the other after it? No one worships her. She and her family are just one example, among many, of young Catholics striving to live our faith. Care to share what your problem/obsession with her is? Lila Rose, Chris Stefanick and others take their faith and morals openly to the public. Yet, some who post here anonymously and vaguely criticize them. I stand with them, by name. It’s rather cowardly to post vague criticism anonymously. Are you a Catholic (or Christian of some type)? Do you realize that calumny is a sin? If you’re serious about your convictions, please be specific with your criticisms and use your real name. Anonymous internet gripers are not worth attention.
I don’t like the racial implications of the picture for this story.
The illustration is highly ambiguous, to say the least. Sort of like a Rorshach test. I think the guy thinking the exclamation point is jealous this his ex-girlfriend is now with another dude. Maybe he’s contemplating committing a felony. Or maybe just letting the air out of the guy’s tires. Who knows?
What are the racial implications you see?
Not everything is about race. Maybe your comment says more about you than the Cal Catholic person who selected the illustration.
I see a dating couple. What do you see?
What makes you think they are dating? Maybe they are brother and sister.