Adults aged 25 to 34 are generally the most sexually active age group, though the gap between them and older adults has narrowed considerably over the past three decades. In 1990, 55% of U.S. adults aged 18 to 64 reported having sex at least once a week. By 2024, that number had dropped to 37%, with the steepest declines hitting younger adults hardest.
The answer to this question used to be more straightforward. Young adults in their 20s historically reported the highest frequency by a wide margin. But shifting social patterns, fewer partnerships, and less in-person socializing have reshuffled the picture in ways that surprise most people.
Young Adults Are Having Less Sex Than Before
If you expected 18- to 29-year-olds to top the list, that was true a generation ago. In the early 1990s, this group averaged roughly 81 sexual encounters per year. By the early 2010s, that number had already slipped to about 79, and more recent survey data suggests the decline has accelerated since then. Gen Z adults are seeing the steepest drop in weekly sexual activity of any generation currently tracked.
Several forces are driving this. Young adults aged 18 to 29 who live with a romantic partner fell from 42% to 32% between 2014 and 2024. That matters because living with a partner is one of the strongest predictors of regular sex at any age. At the same time, the average amount of weekly social time among young adults collapsed from 12.8 hours in 2010 to just over 5 hours by 2024. Less time around other people means fewer opportunities to form the relationships that lead to sexual activity in the first place.
This doesn’t mean young adults have lost interest in sex. It means the circumstances that historically made this group the most active, like early cohabitation and abundant social time, have eroded significantly.
The 25-to-34 Window
Adults in their late 20s and early 30s tend to have the highest combination of sexual desire, established partnerships, and physical health. Many people in this bracket are in cohabiting relationships or early marriages, which consistently correlate with higher frequency. They’re past the hookup-or-nothing dynamic of the early 20s and haven’t yet entered the phase where competing demands from careers and young children start cutting into intimacy.
CDC survey data from 2015 to 2019 gives a sense of the sexual landscape for adults 25 to 49. Among sexually experienced women in that range, the median number of lifetime opposite-sex partners was 4.3. For men, it was 6.3. About 29% of women and 22% of men reported two to four lifetime partners, while roughly 13% of women and 28% of men reported 15 or more. These numbers reflect broad variation in how people approach sex across their adult years, but they confirm that the 25-and-older bracket is where most adults have settled into regular sexual relationships.
Marriage Helps, but Less Than It Used To
Married people still have sex more often than single people on average. But even that gap is shrinking. Between 2000 and 2018, the share of married men reporting sex at least once a week dropped from 71% to 58%. For married women, it went from 69% to 61%. The decline can’t be explained simply by more people being single. Something is changing within relationships too.
Researchers have floated several explanations: more screen time in bed, higher rates of exhaustion from dual-income households, and a cultural shift where couples feel less obligated to maintain a particular frequency. Whatever the mix of causes, being married or partnered still provides the most reliable context for regular sex, just at lower rates than previous decades.
Sexual Activity After 60
Older adults remain more sexually active than most people assume. In a large English study, 86% of men and 60% of women aged 60 to 69 reported being sexually active. Even among those 70 to 79, the numbers were 59% for men and 34% for women.
Frequency does drop with age, and the reasons are mostly physical. Lower testosterone in men reduces both desire and energy. After menopause, decreased estrogen can make intercourse uncomfortable or painful due to vaginal dryness. Roughly 40% of women over 60 report low libido, yet most of them still consider sex an important part of their lives. Conditions like arthritis, mobility limitations, and medication side effects also play a role, as does the loss of a partner through death or illness.
Many older adults adapt rather than stop. The definition of “sexually active” broadens with age to include a wider range of intimate activity beyond intercourse. This is a normal and well-documented pattern, not a sign of decline.
Satisfaction Doesn’t Follow the Same Curve
Here’s the part that surprises people most: sexual satisfaction doesn’t decrease with age the way frequency does. Among women who remain sexually active, satisfaction levels are essentially the same whether they’re 40 or 70. What predicts satisfaction isn’t age or even hormone levels. It’s the quality of the relationship, how well partners communicate about sex, and how much importance both people place on their intimate life.
This means the age group having the most sex isn’t necessarily the one enjoying it the most. A 65-year-old couple having sex twice a month in a strong relationship may report higher satisfaction than a 28-year-old with more frequent but less connected encounters. Frequency and fulfillment are related, but they’re not the same thing.
The Bigger Picture
The overall trend across every age group is downward. Americans at nearly every life stage are having less sex than they were in the 1990s. The decline is sharpest among the youngest adults, moderate among the middle-aged, and gentlest among older adults (who started from a lower baseline). The 25-to-34 group currently sits at the top of the frequency curve, but the real story is that the entire curve has shifted lower. Less cohabitation, less social time, more screen time, and changing relationship norms are reshaping sexual behavior across the board.