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Do most couples start having sex at 18?

Tagged as: Sex, Teenage<< Previous question   Next question >>
Question - (9 December 2012) 5 Answers - (Newest, 11 December 2012)
A female United States age 30-35, anonymous writes:

When couples turn 18 in highschool do they usually have sex? whether they already were or start to.

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A female reader, CindyCares Italy +, writes (11 December 2012):

CindyCares agony auntStatistically, yes.

My source is the Kinsey Institute for Research at Indiana University - generally, those guys really know what they are talking about and base their searches on very extensive representative samples. In 2010, they say that by age 18 70% of USA females and 62% of USA males have had their first intercourse. The average age in USA for the first sexual encounters is about 16.9 altogether, males and fmales, but it may be significantly higher or significantly lower according to specific geographical areas / ethnic groups.

So, yes they do it, there's no denying that. That it is also a good idea- not necessarily. First, in most states it's an illegal sex offence with serious consequences . Second, the USA have a rate of teen pregnancy which is, according to areas, from twice to ten ( ! ) times the rate of other developed western countries . They do it soon...and they do it wrong, apparently.

Do not ever base your personal choices on trends or stats or peer pressure. Be smart, safe and legal.

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A male reader, daletom United States +, writes (11 December 2012):

No, no, no!

According to controlled studies by the National Center for Health Statistics, only about 60% of guys have had sex before they turned 19. See Table 13, page 44, at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_026.pdf . That means 40% (almost half!) of guys turning 19 have NOT had sex. And if you read down the table, notice that 10% are still virgins at 23. Now, 40% and 10% are certainly a minority compared to those who HAVE had sex, but they are very significant, sizable minorities! A 23 year old virgin (I was one) may not be "typical", but he's not exactly rare.

For girls, see See Table 32, page 71, at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_025.pdf . About 2/3 will have intercourse before turning 19, but 10% are still virgins when they are 22. Don't believe it if somebody says that "everybody else has done it" by the time they are 18, or even 21!

And remember that these numbers include married people, as well as single people. By age 22, nay folks are married and are expected to be having sex.

Many of your friends are probably not telling the truth about their sexual activities. For several decades the CDC researchers have noticed that when you ask teens about their sexual activities, many of them report being sexually active in various ways. But if you come back 5 or 10 years later and ask the same people about it, they admit that they didn't really do everything they claimed, or did it at a later age.

In fact, of men who were EVER married about 1 in 12 were virgins up until they got married! See Table 22, page 53, at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_026.pdf . (Yes, the percentage will be lower if it was based on ALL men, not just those who are married.)

For women who have ever been married it's closer to 1 in 7. See Table 42, page 81, at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_025.pdf .

Wedding-night virgins of either sex are a definite minority, but a very sizable minority! If you claim "I am 20 years old and the ONLY virgin of all my friends." then your friends are probably not telling you the truth. Find some friends who are more honest.

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A female reader, So_Very_Confused United States +, writes (10 December 2012):

So_Very_Confused agony auntIt really doesn't matter what OTHER couples do. What matters is what YOU want to do with your partner.

IF at 18 you and your partner BOTH want to have sex then go for it.

IF either if you does not, then it's not time.

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A male reader, Sageoldguy1465 United States +, writes (9 December 2012):

Sageoldguy1465 agony auntAre you asking the Aunts and Uncles to VALIDATE that you can - and SHOULD - start an active sex life in the next year or two???? Won't happen....

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A male reader, no nonsense Aidan United Kingdom +, writes (9 December 2012):

In the UK you can legally have sex from 16 onwards and yes a lot of people are sexually active by 18. I would have thought that even with an age of consent of 18, quite a lot of teenagers who’ve been together for a while would have had sex anyway before turning 18 and plenty more will have made the conscious (and correct) choice to wait until they were 18 and then enjoy the sex they’d wanted to have but were prevented from so-doing by law. The most important thing to remember though is that there’s no right time to have sex, the right time is the time when it feels right for the couple, presuming of course no laws are being broken. It is best to wait until you’ve got to know each other a bit before having sex, so if a couple have not been together long they shouldn’t just have sex because they happen to turn 18. I also think that the number of people who are either virgins or not having sex in their current relationships because they’re not ready, is underestimated because people tend to talk a lot about having sex but we don’t talk enough about not having it. So the take home message is, essentially, that you can have sex when you turn 18 if you wish, but having sex just because you can is a pretty bad reason to do so.

I wish you all the very best.

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