Monday, June 15

Some Sex Statistics from The Kinsey Institute

Don't worry, it's just stats--nothing too uncomfortable.

Sex In Marriage:
  • 3% of married women have not had sex in the past year. 1% of men.
  • 13% of married couples have sex a few times a year.
  • 45% a few times a month.
  • 34% 2-3 times per week.
  • 7% More than 4 times per week.
This is about what I have been telling clients (e.g. 2-3 times a week to 2-3 times a month is the "normal" range). One client who was wanting sex multiple times per day is obviously in the extreme, (although, I think that may be due to his not knowing how to emotionally connect in other ways).

Sexual Orientation:
  • 90% of people consider themselves to be heterosexual, ~2% homosexual, ~2% bisexual, and ~4% as ‘something else’.
  • 6.2% of men and 4.4% of women are attracted to people of the same sex.
I think it is important to consider not just the prevalence, but the diversity of experience and attraction beyond the simple gay or straight categories, including the fluid nature for some (but certainly not all).

Internet Pornography:
  • 25% of men report* visiting a pornographic website in the last 30 days. 4% of women.
  • 8% of men and women who use the Internet for sexual reasons reported significant problems associated with compulsive disorders.
I wonder if in more conservative or religious cultures this is a bigger problem because of the secrecy and greater amount of shame involved (which seem to make an addictive cycle worse). I would be curious about studies on this topic done on a cross-cultural/religious manner.

Masturbation:
  • 5% of men and 11% of women have never masturbated.
  • 35% of men ages 18-39 do not masturbate, 37% 'sometimes', 28% more than once per week.
For those who believe masturbation is something that needs to be abstained from, how do you teach your kids while at the same time not instilling them with excessive guilt and feelings of isolation, when in fact more than 90% do at some point?

Orgasm:
  • 62% of women in relationships are “very satisfied” with the frequency of orgasm.
This seems to be in stark contrast to men, whom except in rare cases almost always have an orgasm during sex. Nature's cruelty to women!

Contraception:
  • More than 120 million couples a year have an unmet need for contraception.
Think about all the unwanted pregnancies that would not occur if these people had this need met!

Rape:
  • 14.8 % of women in the U.S. are raped at some point during their life.
This stat is scary. I had no idea it was so high. My wife actually thought it was low. Scary.

*Keep in mind, these are all self-report statistics. Some could be higher or lower.

What do you think? Anything surprising here (on the low end or the high)?

10 comments:

  1. Very interesting. I actually thought the "homosexual" stat would be higher, but it still shows about 10% are NOT heterosexual, which is what I would expect. Maybe b/c I live in a city, went to a liberal college, and have gay friends I thought it'd be higher, haha.

    I did a post a few months back about how the MORE conservative the state (relative to voting patterns) the MORE internet porn was PAID for. Thus, Utah leads the nation in pay for porn stats. You bring up the most important point; not so much how to stop it, which a society can't, but how to deal with the personal guilt that only adds to a downward spiral. I saw many LDS members that were so guilt ridden, not usually porn related, that church just seemed to make them feel worse. It seems the Church needs to do a better job teaching foregiveness at the younger ages (kind of like Catholics) than discipline and guilt, IMHO.

    BTW, how is the workout going?

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're right--and I think often some the "guilt" is due to public shame (or fear of it).

    Re: workouts - I'm actually going running this morning! Other than that, it kind of fell off after school ended, which is ironic because I have more time. We (Nat and I) have been doing a lot better nutrition-wise though. Just trying to make adjustments and keep to them, and then add more as we go.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with your wife-The rape statistic is probably too low.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Interesting stuff. Agreed about addiction to porn and religious conservatism.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Interesting stats.
    Any info. on the sample population?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Re: population - The stats are actually from a bunch of different studies, from the past 10-15 years or so. The page I pulled these from is here.

    One example that I was able to get was from the internet stat--the population was from an online survey, with a size of about 9,000 people.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Although I tend to agree with Sherpa and your wife regarding the rape numbers and that they are unfortunately higher, I also think it stems from the wide range of what rape is. An activity can be considered, both figuratively and legally, rape and not be violent or necessarily unpleasant. Now, don't take this the wrong way, I think rapists are the lowest of the low and it is also why they are usually the first ones raped themselves in prison, which I find not the least bit ironic. However, by definition, I could even say I have been raped, ie forced to have intercourse when not wanted. I would think 15% is probably right for VIOLENT rapes.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Beginning your statement with "I could even say I" makes it pretty clear to me that you have not been raped.

    q

    ReplyDelete
  9. I also wonder if there are a lot of rapes that just aren't reported, hence the apparently low stat.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Adam - I totally agree with that and is probably what Sherpa was hinting at. Like a lot of horrible things in life, a lot of people probably don't freely admit it.

    Anon - Touche! I definitely wasn't trying to belittle actual victims, just the method of data collection and a broad definition which can manipulate data results.

    ReplyDelete

Comments that are not offensive, snide, or off-topic enough may be subject to moderation.