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Millennials Are Having Less Sex Than Past Generations, Study Finds

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Katie Jerkovich Entertainment Reporter
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Despite its reputation as the “hookup” generation, millennials are having less sex than any other generation in close to 100 years, according to a recent study.

The results appeared in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, according to the Daily Beast. (RELATED: CHILLING: Netflix Is Causing Everybody To Stop Having Sex, Professor Warns)

In an era where swiping right to choose a partner takes less than a second, millennials are not only choosing to have less sex than Generation X and baby boomers, they are “significantly more likely to have no sexual partners” at all.

“Our data show that … millennials are not more promiscuous than their predecessors,” said Ryne Sherman, co-author of the study. “We had a hint because we had already seen that the total number of sexual partners was down. But we didn’t know that abstinence would be up.”

The study looked at responses in a national survey that asked the millennials for the number of sexual partners they had since they turned 18.

Results showed that for those Americans born in the 1990s and in their early twenties 15 percent said they were “sexually inactive” as compared to only 6 percent of those born in the late 1960s.

The study looked to see why this was the case. One idea stemmed from the economic struggles of millennials, as more than one-third still live at home with their parents.

“With more [millennials] living with their parents even post-recession, young adults may have fewer opportunities to have sex,” the study read.

“Attitudes toward sexual permissiveness have become more liberal,” Sherman said. “People are more accepting of premarital and homosexual sex for example. So attitudes toward sexuality have moved in that direction but behavior isn’t actually following that.”