“Although the discussion around cause and effect becomes very complex when considering who becomes sexually experienced and who remains a virgin, we show that heterosexual inexperience is at least partly a socioeconomic issue for men. Compared to those with the highest incomes, men in the lowest income categories were 10 to 20 times more likely to have no heterosexual experience. Men were more likely to have had intercourse if they had permanent, full-time employment and lived in cities with more than 1 million inhabitants. The researchers used data from seven surveys conducted between 19, each including between 11,553 and 17,859 adults aged 18 to 39 years old.
The data were collected by the National Fertility Survey of Japan, designed and implemented approximately every five years by the Japanese National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. In 2015, the numbers jumped to 8.9 percent for women and 9.5 percent for men. In 2015, the numbers jumped to 11.9 percent of women and 12.7 percent of men.įor people between 35 to 39 years old in 1992, only 4 percent of women and 5.5 percent of men reported no heterosexual experience. When the numbers are broken down to smaller age ranges, the trend towards increased virginity rates is observed even among adults in their 30s.įor people between 30 to 34 years old in 1987, 6.2 percent of women and 8.8 percent of men reported no heterosexual experience. The respective numbers for men were 20 percent and 25.8 percent. Heterosexual inexperience in women aged 18 to 39 years old increased from 21.7 percent in 1992 to 24.6 percent in 2015. The new analysis presented estimates for the whole Japanese population, more clearly defined the age and socioeconomic status of people who have never had heterosexual intercourse and compared trends over time. Peter Ueda, an expert in epidemiology and public health and leader of the research project. “Previous news reports about virginity rates among Japanese young adults were a bit sensationalist, only included never-married individuals, and did not distinguish virginity rates by age group,” said Dr. Public health experts at the University of Tokyo completed the most detailed analysis of national fertility survey data to date to understand trends in sexual experience over the past three decades. Japan has an increasing percentage of young adults with no history of heterosexual vaginal intercourse. Image by Caitlin Devor, The University of Tokyo.