More than 42 percent of never-married adolescents ages 15 to 19 say they have had sex at least once. Researchers from the National Center for Health Statistics report that from to , Among the majority who had not had sex, the reasons varied. More than 35 percent of girls and almost 28 percent of boys said that it was against their religion or moral code.

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The historic drop is one of the findings in the iteration of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey YRBS , a biannual survey administered by the CDC that tracks risky behaviors, including sexual intercourse, among America's high schoolers. Administered to high school students across the country since , the YRBS offers one of the more detailed longitudinal views of the state of high school sexual activity. What this year's report shows is yet another drop in that activity, consistent with the more or less continuous trend since Closer examination reveals that most teens are having less sex and delaying sex longer, and that sexually-active teens have fewer lifetime sexual partners. That confirms other data indicating that American teenagers are far more risk averse than their parents, challenging the popular media representation of an increasingly sexualized adolescent life. In , some
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This article is part of our sex edition, commemorating 45 years since we ran our first student sex survey. Natalie Cerf. This year the Redwood Bark surveyed students about their sexual experiences, teens under the influence, teens in love and issues all in between. The last time the Bark conducted the sex survey was in and the first time was in To learn about how students then and now are living their teenage years, continue reading. Nationwide, 98 percent of males and females identify as straight. In a survey done by the National Health Interview in , Proportionally, this aligns very closely with the data collected through the Bark survey. Heterosexuality is far more widespread campus and country wide than homosexuality and bisexuality combined. This is about 10 percent lower than the data the Bark collected of students whose extent of sexual experience was intercourse 32 and 29 percent in and percent, respectively.
What's sex like for teens? Government scientists wanted to know, so they rounded up nearly 5, teenagers ages 15 to 19 and asked about how frequently they have sex, who's hooking up with whom, what kind of birth control they use, etc. Keep clicking to see six fascinating findings from the CDC survey Girlfriends, boyfriends - one-night stands? Who are teens having sex with these days? Almost 70 percent of girls and 56 percent of boys said they were "going steady" with their sexual partners.