
Importantly, the study also doesn’t prove that more sex necessarily makes people happier, noted Christian Joyal, a researcher at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres who wasn’t involved in the study.

The survey also didn’t look at masturbation. One limitation of the study is that the survey didn’t specify what types of sex it was asking about, making it possible that some respondents might have been counting just vaginal-penile intercourse while others might have included oral or anal sex in their tally, the authors note. But then, around 2008, their sexual frequency started to slide - and both married and unmarried people started having sex less often. “But even when we take age into account, the marriage advantage in sexual frequency is smaller than it once was.”įor unmarried people, sexual frequency increased from 1989 to 2002, perhaps because of loosening norms about premarital sex, Twenge added by email. “Some of this is due to age - people get married later now,” said lead study author Jean Twenge, a psychology researcher at San Diego State University. But by 2014 married couples were having sex just 55 times a year, trailing single people who had sex 59 times a year.Īs a rule, unpartnered people used to have less sex, on average, compared to those who were married or living together, researchers note. Married people typically had sex 73 times a year in 1990, researchers report in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.

are having less sex today than they did generations ago, and a new study suggests that marriage may be part of the problem. (Reuters Health) - It you think your sex life isn’t what it once was, you’re not alone.
