By Mr. Right
In 2019, CBS News published a news piece, aptly headlined, “The cautionary tale of Japan’s ‘sex recession,’” warning of Japan’s plummeting birth rates, loneliness epidemic, and the staggering numbers of young people not having sex at all.
The sex recession may reach Western shores soon enough, CBS News cautioned at the time, maybe even America. (RELATED: The Real Reason Americans Aren’t Having Kids)
Well, at least going off some new data, it has.
Americans are now engaging in less intimacy than ever, a new study from the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) reveals. The IFS report “The Sex Recession” delves into data from the 2024 General Social Survey by NORC at the University of Chicago, published in May.
NEW: @WSJ reports “Americans are having a record low amount of sex—even less than they did during Covid—according to a new study” from @FamStudies. We find that
✔️just 37% of adult Americans have sex weekly https://t.co/Gv3G5vp3VX pic.twitter.com/T8ZqOyBiUo
— Brad Wilcox (@BradWilcoxIFS) August 30, 2025
The findings?
A mere 37% of adults between 18 and 64 reported having sex at least weekly, a stark drop from 55% in 1990. Young adults are seeing an even sharper drop: 24% of those aged 18-29 admitted to not engaging in any sexual activity over the past year, doubling the figure from 2010.
While Millennials and Zoomers have repeatedly blamed social awkwardness and the lure of online escapism for their retreat from dating and romance, the study expands the trend to those well into middle age, regardless of marital status or sexual orientation.
Yes, even couples who are married or in serious romantic relationships are having less sex. Obviously, there are the usual suspects of having kids, work fatigue, etc., but previous generations managed just fine, didn’t they? No one could have predicted a sex recession just a few decades ago. (RELATED: Who Are The 7% Of American Men Who Found Sydney Sweeney’s Ad Offensive? Here’s A Theory)
The situation improves little for seniors over 64, whose frequency of sex hasn’t significantly changed, likely due to their already low baseline (no offense!).
Japan stands as a warning here. Trapped in a far more severe sex recession, the country is now super-aged, while its young population is crippled by loneliness and isolation.
For America, unless attitudes change to make intimacy and family life desirable again, we risk mirroring Japan’s slow-motion demographic decline.
Amid rumors of robots replacing humans and tried and worn policy ideas like tax credits for families, one lesson still rings clear, which I have reiterated before: culture, not legislation, must make family life appealing.
A good way to start is by chipping away at one of the biggest factors driving the sex recession: our culture of nonstop, 24/7 screen use.
Encouraging your children or grandchildren to get off their phones and stop excessively scrolling through social media; reading more books rather than binge-watching Netflix; getting sun, exercising, and walking daily – all of these things won’t reverse the trend immediately, but will certainly help in the long run.
