Sex recession is the term for a documented trend: over two decades, young adults in the U.S. and Britain have had less sex than earlier generations. In the U.S., the share of men aged 18 to 24 who went a full year without sex rose from 18.9% to 30.9% between 2000 and 2018. The driver is not declining desire. Two factors explain it: fewer steady relationships, and less sex within couples — the factors these studies identify are mainly social and relational, which, clinically, makes them something couples can talk about.
The question is the same for Iranian couples in Tehran and for immigrants in Toronto, Los Angeles or Dubai: why has greater freedom brought less intimacy?
How Real Is the Sex Recession in the Numbers?
Ueda and colleagues (2020) analysed 4,291 men and 5,213 women aged 18 to 44 in the U.S. General Social Survey (2000 to 2018). Among men aged 18 to 24, sexlessness in the past year rose from 18.9% to 30.9% — roughly one in three. For women the same age, the rise from 15.1% to 19.1% was not significant. Among 25- to 34-year-olds, the share doubled in men and nearly doubled in women.
In Britain, Wellings and colleagues (2019) compared three cycles of the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal). Between 2001 and 2012, the share of people aged 16 to 44 who had gone a month without sex rose from 23% to 29.3% in women and 26% to 29.2% in men.
Two independent national surveys, in the U.S. and Britain, both recorded rising sexlessness among young adults (JAMA Network Open, 2020; BMJ, 2019). Limitation: the data are self-reported, and the U.S. survey response rate was 59.5% to 71.4%.
Setting the phone aside and returning to the shared moment is the simplest step toward breaking the nightly distance — Image: AI-generated / Gemini 3.1 Flash via OpenRouter
Why Are Even Married Couples Having Less Sex?
Twenge and colleagues (2017), using data on 26,620 American adults, showed that adults in the early 2010s had sex about nine fewer times per year than in the late 1990s. Two factors drove this: more people without a partner, and less sex within couples themselves. In Ueda’s study, the share of married people having sex once a week or more fell from 71.1% to 57.7% among men and from 69.1% to 60.9% among women.
Two findings set aside popular hypotheses. In Twenge’s study, the decline was not linked to longer working hours or increased pornography use; it was tied above all to birth cohort. In Britain, as sex became less frequent, the share wanting more sex rose. Desire has not disappeared; the gap between wanting and having has widened.
In clinical work with Iranian couples in Tehran and immigrants in Toronto and Los Angeles, a repeating pattern appears: two people in one bed, each on a phone, with no argument involved. Sex rarely stops in a single crisis; they thin out through small nightly postponements. The role of the smartphone here remains unproven [Needs further review: no causal data on the effect of phones on sexual frequency].
According to Archives of Sexual Behavior (2017), the decline in sexual frequency in the U.S. was tied above all to birth cohort, not to increased pornography use or longer working hours. This matches the British survey, which found the steepest declines among married and cohabiting people.
What Does Psychoanalysis Say About This Retreat?
In 1908, in “Civilized” Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness, Freud argued that sexual repression imposed by his era’s morality carries a psychological cost. Today that external prohibition has largely been lifted, yet sex has become less frequent. From a psychoanalytic perspective, one may ask whether the prohibition has moved inward: fear of judgment, performance anxiety and the need to fully control every experience hold desire back and postpone the act.
This reading is interpretive, not experimental; still, it moves the conversation from “how often?” to “what is getting in the way?” Less sex in today’s generation is not necessarily a sign of diminished desire; in the British national survey, the wish for more sex rose as frequency fell (BMJ, 2019).
Is Less Sex Always a Problem? And When Should You Get Help?
The short answer is no. In an analysis of 17,744 American adults (Kim and colleagues, 2017), after controlling for social and demographic factors, people with no sexual activity reported roughly equal happiness to sexually active people. In Britain, among experienced people who had gone a year without sex, only 34.8% of men and 23.6% of women were dissatisfied (Ueda and Mercer, 2019). The right measure is the satisfaction of both people, not a fixed number.
In a study of 2,101 German couples (Johnson and colleagues, 2025), 86.4% belonged to the group where both partners were highly satisfied and had sex slightly less than weekly. According to the Journal of Family Psychology (2025), couples with less conflict, more self-disclosure and mutual commitment were more likely to have both regular sex and high satisfaction. These studies are cross-sectional and do not prove cause; no comparable national data were found for Iran [Needs further review: sexual frequency trends in Iran].
Professional help is needed when the distance is no longer a mutual choice: one partner suffers while the other withdraws, talking about sex ends in a fight, or anxiety, shame or physical problems block intimacy. A sex therapist can help name the knot before silence becomes a habit.
Sex recession means a decline in sexual frequency and a rising share of people with no sexual activity over the past two decades. In the U.S. General Social Survey (JAMA Network Open, 2020), the share of men aged 18 to 24 who went a year without sex rose from 18.9% to 30.9%.
Is Pornography the Cause of the Sex Recession?
The evidence does not support this. In an analysis of 26,620 American adults (Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2017), the decline was not linked to increased pornography use or longer working hours, and was tied mainly to birth cohort.
How Much Sex Per Week Is “Normal”?
No fixed number counts as “normal.” In U.S. data (Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2017), people in their twenties had sex about 80 times a year and those in their sixties about 20 times a year. Most satisfied German couples had sex slightly less than once a week.
When Does Less Sex Require Counseling?
When one partner is suffering, when the conversation ends in a fight or silence, or when anxiety and shame block intimacy. The British survey (BMJ Open, 2019) found many people without sex are not dissatisfied; the measure is distress, not the number alone.
The Bottom Line: Recession or a Chance to Reconnect?
The data are clear: today’s generation, and even married couples, have less sex than in the past. Yet desire has not disappeared, and many want more sex. What has decreased is opportunity, security and conversation — and two people can rebuild those. A couple that names the distance and talks about it is one step ahead of the recession.
Looking for professional support with your relationship or mental health?
Ueda P, Mercer CH, Ghaznavi C, et al. Trends in Frequency of Sexual Activity and Number of Sexual Partners Among Adults Aged 18 to 44 Years in the US, 2000-2018. JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(6):e203833. PMID: 32530470
Twenge JM, Sherman RA, Wells BE. Declines in Sexual Frequency among American Adults, 1989-2014. Arch Sex Behav. 2017;46(8):2389-2401. PMID: 28265779
Wellings K, Palmer MJ, Machiyama K, et al. Changes in, and factors associated with, frequency of sex in Britain: evidence from three National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal). BMJ. 2019;365:l1525. PMID: 31064762
Ueda P, Mercer CH. Prevalence and types of sexual inactivity in Britain: analyses of national cross-sectional probability survey data. BMJ Open. 2019;9(10):e030708. PMID: 31662376
Kim JH, Tam WS, Muennig P. Sociodemographic Correlates of Sexlessness Among American Adults and Associations with Self-Reported Happiness Levels. Arch Sex Behav. 2017;46(8):2403-2415. PMID: 28275930
Johnson MD, Li W, Impett EA, et al. How are sexual frequency and relationship satisfaction intertwined? A latent profile analysis of male-female couples. J Fam Psychol. 2025. PMID: 40111794
Freud S. (1908). “Civilized” Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness. Standard Edition, Vol. 9, pp. 177-204. PEP-Web
Image Credits: Featured and in-text images are AI-generated (Gemini 3.1 Flash via OpenRouter). AI-generated image. No real person is depicted.
