Sexual Behavior and Selected Health Measures: Men and Women 15-44 Years of Age, United States, 2002

Advance Data 362. Sexual Behavior and Selected Health Measures: Men and Women 15-44 Years of Age, United States, 2002. 56 pp. (PHS) 2003-1250.
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Objective: This report is intended to provide reliable national estimates of some basic statistics on certain types of sexual behavior, sexual orientation, and sexual attraction for men and women 15-44 years of age, based on data collected in the United States in 2002. The data are relevant to public health concerns, including efforts to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and to demographic and social concerns such as birth and pregnancy rates among teenagers. The data are from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), and are based on 12,571 in-person interviews with men and women 15-44 years of age.

Highlights of findings

Teens

At ages 15-19, about 12 percent of males and 10 percent of females had had heterosexual oral sex but not vaginal intercourse. (The male-female percentages are not significantly different.) This percent drops to 3 percent for both males and females at age 22-24, when most have already had vaginal intercourse. There are no trend data for females. Trend data for males suggest that no large changes in these behaviors have occurred since 1995.

Adults-heterosexual activity

Among adult males 25-44 years of age, 97 percent have had sexual contact with an opposite-sex partner in their lives; 97 percent have had vaginal intercourse, 90 percent have had oral sex with a female, and 40 percent, anal sex with a female. Among women, the proportions who have had sexual contact with an opposite-sex partner were similar.

Males 30-44 years of age reported an average (median) of 6-8 female sexual partners in their lifetimes. Among women 30-44 years of age, the median number of male sexual partners in their lifetimes was about four. The findings appear to be similar to previous surveys conducted in the early 1990’s.

Same-sex activity

Three percent of males 15-44 years of age have had oral or anal sex with another male in the last 12 months (1.8 million). Four percent of females had a sexual experience with another female in the last 12 months (tables A and B).

The proportion who had same-sex contact in their lifetimes was 6 percent for males and (using a different question) 11 percent for females (figure 5).

About 1 percent of men and 3 percent of women 15-44 years of age have had both male and female sexual partners in the last 12 months (table B).

Sexual orientation

In response to a question that asked, “Do you think of yourself as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or something else?” 90 percent of men 18-44 years of age responded that they think of themselves as heterosexual, 2.3 percent of men answered homosexual, 1.8 percent bisexual, 3.9 percent “something else,” and 1.8 percent did not answer the question (figure 8). Percents for women were similar. These findings are similar to data collected in 1992 by Laumann et al.

Sexual attraction

Survey participants were asked if they were sexually attracted to males, to females, or to both. Among men 18-44 years of age, 92 percent said they were attracted “only to females,” and 3.9 percent, “mostly” to females. Among women, 86 percent said they were attracted only to males, and 10 percent, “mostly” to males. The percentage attracted “mostly to males” was 3 percent in a survey conducted in 1992, compared with 10 percent in the 2002 NSFG.

Selected health measures

29 percent of men who have ever had male-male sexual contact were tested for HIV (outside of blood donation) in the last year, compared with 14 percent of men with no same-sex sexual contact.

17 percent of men who ever had male-male sexual contact had been treated for a non-HIV sexually transmitted infection (STI), compared with 7 percent of those who had never had male-male sexual contact.

Among men 15-44 years of age who had at least one sexual partner in the last 12 months, 39 percent used a condom at their most recent sex. Among never married males, this figure was 65 percent, compared with 24 percent of married males. Among males who had ever had sexual contact with another male, 91 percent used a condom at their last sex, compared with 36 percent of men who never had sex with another male.

This page last reviewed October 15, 2008