From Durex Global Sex Survey 2007
In the first instance the study looked at first sexualexperiences, exploring the differences by gender,education, income and area type. It found that womentend to lose their virginity 7.2 months earlier than men.For women the average age is 18.9, compared to19.5 for men.
Pressured into sex
Women are also more likely to feel pressured into havingsex, with 27.5% of them saying they felt this was thecase for their sexual debut compared to 15% of men.
This may go some way to explaining why women aremore likely to regret their first sexual experience, with42% of females reporting negative feelings, comparedto 32% of men.
A report in the Lancet entitled Sexual Behaviour inBritain: early heterosexual experience (Wellings et al.2001) revealed that women are more likely than men tosay they wished they had waited longer and to reportnot being equally willing. They are twice as likely asmen to regret their first experience and three times aslikely to report being the less willing partner.
This is a recurring theme as in South Africa, a NationalSurvey of HIV and Sexual Behaviour among 15-24 yearolds (Pettifor et al. 2004) found that only 30% ofsexually experienced women really wanted their firstexperience compared to 83% of men.
The data was then analysed to see if level of educationwould have an impact on age of first sex and findingsfrom The Face of Global Sex show that this is the case.In fact, people who leave education earlier are likelyto have lost their virginity at a much younger age thanthose who go on to study for PhDs.
For low education level respondents the age at first sexis 18.6 years. This increases to 18.9 for people who havesome college or university education and rises again to20 years for people who have completed a degree atuniversity or college. Meanwhile, higher educationrespondents are nearly two years older when theymake their sexual debuts, at 20.3 years.
The survey also found that people from the loweducation category are likely to experience the highestpressure to have sex, with one in four reporting that theyfelt some sort of pressure or were being forced at first sex.
This drops to 15% for the most highly educated people
These people are also likely to feel more ready tohave sex than when compared with low educationrespondents and look back on the experience morepositively. While just under six in ten respondents fromthe low education category report feeling positiveabout their first sexual experience, the figure rises to71.4% for higher degree respondents.
Location
Area type also has an impact on the age at whichpeople experience first sex, with those in rural areaslosing their virginity earlier than those in townsor cities.
On average, people living in rural surroundings arelikely to be aged 18.2 years when they lose theirvirginity. People in suburban areas are nearer 19 whilethose in cities will make their sexual debut even laterthan those in rural surroundings, at 19.8.
People in rural areas also appear to be less ready forsex, with one in four reporting that they were prepared,compared to 34% for suburban respondents. And theyare less likely to receive sex education than the otherarea types. Compared with suburban respondents,people living in rural areas are 38% more likely toreport never having received sex education. Whencompared to urban respondents this figure increaseseven further to 67%.
Income
The age that people lose their virginity is alsoinfluenced by income, the study shows. People frompoorer populations are more likely to lose their virginityat an earlier age. For respondents in the “very muchbelow average” bracket, for example, the average ageof first sex is 18.1 years.
When compared to respondents at the other extreme,whose earnings are “very much above average”, theyare approximately two years younger.
A similar trend can be identified between incomebrackets when it comes to feeling ready for sex. Thosein the “somewhat above average” category are 45%more likely to be ready at first sex compared to thosein the “somewhat below average” bracket.
Moreover, those in higher income groups are morelikely to experience positive feelings than those inthe lower income groups. The study found that morethan three quarters (75.7%) of people in the “verymuch above” group will look back positively on theexperience. In fact, they are 118% more likely to haveexperienced some sort of positive feeling at first sexif compared to the “very much below” group.
Current age
The Face of Global Sex has also found that youngsterstoday appear more ready for their sexual debut. Morethan 40% of teens in the 16-19 age group say they feltready for the experience, while people aged between50-64 say they had been the least ready – only 24%say they had felt prepared for their first sexualexperience.
While it is possible that this could be due to older peoplereceiving less formal sex education than their youngercounterparts, it is interesting to note that people over65 felt slightly more prepared than those aged 50-64.In this instance, more than a quarter of them say theyhad felt ready for their first sexual experience.
