Sex among teenagers.(Statistical Data Included)

Although sex is common among teenagers, it is not as widespread, and does not begin as early, as most adults believe. Adults generally think that teenagers start having sexual intercourse before they turn 16, (53) but few very young adolescents are sexually experienced. In fact, more than half of teenagers are virgins until they are at least 17. (54) Furthermore, while the likelihood of having intercourse increases steadily with age, nearly 20% of adolescents do not have sex at all during their teenage years (55) (Figure 9, page 19).

Increasing Prevalence of Sex

Nevertheless, a greater proportion of teenagers have sex today than did so in recent decades. More than half of women and almost three-quarters of men have had intercourse before their 18th birthday; in the mid-1950s, by contrast, just over a quarter of women under age 18 were sexually experienced (56) (comparable information for men is not available for that time period) (Figure 10, page 20). At each age between 15 and 20, higher proportions of teenage men and women are sexually experienced today than were in the early 1970s (Figures 11 and 12, pages 22 and 23).

Later Marriage

At the same time, women and men who marry today do so 3-4 years later than did their counterparts in the 1950s (57) (Figure 13, page 24).

* In 1992, only 8% of 19-year-olds-12% of women and 3% of men-were married. (58)

* Hispanics are the most likely, and blacks the least likely, to marry in their teenage years; 24% of 19-year-old Hispanic women are married, compared with only 12% of whites and 5% of blacks in that age-group. (59)