The answer to the question - “How many American women have never had sex?” is a bit complicated. US survey data provide an estimate, but the answer depends on how the researchers define sexual experience. Studies also show that never having had sex is different from having no sexual activity during the previous year.
According to a report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in August 2025, 16.0% of females aged 15 to 49 had never had sexual intercourse with a male partner in 2022–2023. This was based on information collected in the National Survey of Family Growth, which provides information on fertility, contraception, and family life.
The figure describes a specific measure of sexual intercourse. It does not establish how many women have never engaged in any form of sexual activity, including oral or anal sex.
The General Social Survey (GSS) is a nationally representative survey of US adults that NORC at the University of Chicago has conducted since 1972. It collects information about social attitudes, relationships, family life and behavior, allowing researchers to examine changes in American society over time.
The GSS was conducted almost annually until 1994, except in 1979, 1981 and 1992. Since 1994, it has generally been conducted on even-numbered years. Researchers can combine data from different survey rounds to examine social trends, but they must take into account differences in survey questions, sampling and data collection methods.
A study published in JAMA Network Open in 2020 examined sexual activity among US adults aged 18 to 44 using 10 rounds of GSS data collected between 2000 and 2018. Researchers analysed how often respondents had sex and how many sexual partners they reported during the previous 12 months.
The percentage of women aged 18–24 who reported no sexual activity in the previous 12 months was 15.1% in 2000–2002 and 19.1% in 2016–2018. Despite the increase in the estimates, the difference was not statistically significant. The study therefore did not establish that sexual inactivity had increased in this age group.
For women aged 25–34, the share reporting no sexual activity in the previous year rose from 7.0% in 2000–2002 to 12.6% in 2016–2018. Unlike the change among women aged 18–24, this difference was statistically significant.
The researchers did not find a comparable significant increase among women aged 35 to 44.
Recent sexual inactivity was more common among younger women than older women in the final survey period. These findings are based on sexual activity during a 12-month period, not lifetime sexual activity.
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An individual with lifetime sexual inexperience is someone who has never engaged in sexual activity as measured by a study. Sexual inactivity usually refers to having no sexual activity during a given period, such as the last 12 months. Someone who has had sex in the past may not report any sexual activity the past year.
Researchers used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine sexual inexperience in adulthood in a 2014 study published in Archives of Sexual Behavior. By the age of 18, the researchers tracked participants who had no oral-genital, vaginal or anal sex. A follow-up study found that 13% of women who had no sexual experience during adolescence remained sexually inexperienced when they were young adults.
The study also found that sexual inexperience and lack of sexual attraction were not interchangeable. Some participants who remained sexually inexperienced reported experiencing sexual attraction, while others reported no sexual attraction. The researchers identified multiple pathways to adult sexual inexperience, rather than a single explanation.
The CDC estimates lifetime history of intercourse with a male partner among females aged 15 to 49, whereas the GSS study examines recent sexual activity among adults aged 18 to 44.
The available studies do not provide a directly comparable set of lifetime sexual-inexperience percentages for women aged 18–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64 and 65 or older. Calculating those percentages would require a suitable lifetime measure, consistent age categories and appropriate survey weighting.
Researchers should distinguish lifetime sexual experiences from recent sexual inactivity when interpreting survey findings.
When interpreting survey findings, researchers must distinguish between lifetime sexual activity and recent inactivity. Neither measure explains the reasons why people have sex or haven't.
See also: Sex Is Easy, Love Is Hard - Why Modern Dating Feels More Complicated Than Hookups
1. Daniels, Kimberly, and Joyce C. Abma. “Current Contraceptive Status Among Females Ages 15–49: United States, 2022–2023.” NCHS Data Brief, no. 539 (August 2025). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db539.htm.
2. NORC at the University of Chicago. “General Social Survey: Frequently Asked Questions.” https://gss.norc.org/faq.html.
3. Ueda, Peter, Catherine H. Mercer, Cyrus Ghaznavi, and Debby Herbenick. “Trends in Frequency of Sexual Activity and Number of Sexual Partners Among Adults Aged 18 to 44 Years in the US, 2000–2018.” JAMA Network Open 3, no. 6 (2020): e203833. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.3833.
4. Haydon, Abigail A., Mariah M. Cheng, Amy H. Herring, Annie-Laurie McRee, and Carolyn Tucker Halpern. “Prevalence and Predictors of Sexual Inexperience in Adulthood.” Archives of Sexual Behavior 43, no. 2 (2014): 221–230. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-013-0164-3.
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