average age of loss of virginity today?

[sheson-fire.livejournal.com]

ok...so i looked through the memories and found only what i had found on my own quick research...i just want someone to tell me im not crazy.
i could have sworn that in the past year..at the most... i read in the newspaper as well as hearing about it on radio talk shows..that the average age u.s. kids lose their virginity now is 12..
im having a debate about it with my husband..because all we can find is articles with no links to studies or surveys saying its around 16...
I KNOW I READ SOMEWHERE THAT IT WAS 12..
but i guess maybe its not...
anyone have any links that show like legit numbers...or at least have heard this number too?
thanks!

Comments

[krylon-blue83.livejournal.com]

I don't have any links, but...12???
wow...that's young o.O

[loonylupinlover.livejournal.com]

I have never heard that, ever. As far as I know the average age is around 15-17.

[suicidekitty911.livejournal.com]

i have never heard that, but i can't imagine it's true! geez i remember how i was at 12 and sex was the furthest thing from my mind! I know times have changed but...12?!?!
If you do find anything, please look at critically and consider the source. a lot of 'statistics' are biased surveys taken for the sole purpose of frightening parents.

[rearrangedfaith.livejournal.com]

i know i've heard of kids as young as 9 having sex.. i want to say i've even heard of a 9 year old becoming pregnant.. but that might not be true.

but no links backing up anything.

12 would not surprise me at all, sadly. my little brother told me, when he was 12, that a lot of his classmates were shackin' up at that time.

and, well, when i was 12 one of my friends was already pregnant.

sad world we live in.

when i was 12 all i wanted to do was play with my friends.

[ehhhhnotreally.livejournal.com]

When I worked in an ER, I had a chart for a girl who was 9 years old and had to be transferred to Labor and Delivery... She was pregnant with her father's child :( I also worked as a counselor in a high school, and had MANY girls that were pregnant, very far along, under 14...

If I'm not mistaken, I believe my city has the highest pregnancy rate for girls under the age of 12, and the second highest teen pregnancy rate in the US...

[barbayat.livejournal.com]

I read in a magazine at my gyn docs that in Germany the average is around 14! But that was a year or so ago ...

[roseofjuly.livejournal.com]

The average age is not 12. I don't have any links currently (gotta try to find some), but my specialty area is human sexuality and currently only about 11% of adolescents have lost their virginity by age 13 (by age 14 it's something like 20%). The average age actually falls between 15-17.

[roseofjuly.livejournal.com]

I guess I also have to be the scrooge here and say that when I was 12, sex was neither the "furthest thing from my mind" nor was I only concerned with playing with my friends -- and most 12-year-olds aren't solely preoccupied with that either. Age 12 is pretty squarely in puberty, and 12-year-olds are supposed to be curious about sexuality. They're changing -- emotionally, physically, chemically, and mentally -- and it's an age where questions about sexuality come up frequently particularly considering that their physical bodies are changing. At age 12 I was growing breasts, pubic hair and getting my period. Of course I was curious at sex, and 12-year-olds now are too.

The problem isn't the children's curiosity about sex -- it's the lack of knowledge that they're being provided with about the sex. Sure some of the children make bad decisions, but a lot of that is predicated on sheer ignorance, particularly in the U.S. with conservatism reigning and abstinence-only sex education programs being promoted. A lot of kids in their early teens don't feel comfortable asking questions about sexuality and aren't equipped with the knowledge they need to have safe sex or to abstain.

*gets off soapbox*

[starship.livejournal.com]

Hm, I lost my virginity when I was almost 16, but believe it or not, that was late compared to my friends.

I knew a girl that lost hers at 11, willingly. My main group of friends all lost theirs around 13/14. So, maybe not quite 12, but it seems they're getting closer =/.

Sorry I don't have any actual studies to link you to.

[ehhhhnotreally.livejournal.com]

Dang, I was 21!

[shadowobsessed.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm almost fifteen, and I'm still a virgin. But I'd say that the average age is about 15 or 16 where I live. *shrug*

[shadowobsessed.livejournal.com]

Although, I do know a guy in his early 20's who lost his when he was 9. That's probably a rarer case, though. ^^;

[starzysky.livejournal.com]

LOL, no f-ing WAY is it 12. I think it's like 14-15.

[starzysky.livejournal.com]

Holy whoa - http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/resources/FAQ.html#Age
I trust the Kinsey Institute- wow 17.4?!?! (for females)

I was about to call myself out but now that I think of it... I was 17.5.

[rockstarbob.livejournal.com]

Good call--you took the words right out of my mouth fingers!

The other thing I was thinking is that it also depends on how virginity is defined.

[stand-in-line.livejournal.com]

I've heard those statistics before too, and I'd believe it. Kind of makes me sick considering I lost mine at 20.

(frozen) Maintainer Note

[frolicnaked.livejournal.com]

Hi, stand_in_line. I'm writing on behalf of the VP Team to express concern that the attitude and/or wording above do not foster what we consider safe space (http://www.vaginapagina.com/index.php?title=VaginaPagina_FAQ#What_is_.22Safe_Space.22.3F) in this community. Specifically, we are concerned that saying becoming sexually active at a young age "makes me sick" is judgmental of other VP members who chose to become sexually active while young.

Please consider this a warning as well as a friendly reminder to take this opportunity to review VP's policies. You can find more information on safe space (http://www.vaginapagina.com/index.php?title=VaginaPagina_FAQ#What_is_.22Safe_Space.22.3F) in our FAQ (http://www.vaginapagina.com/index.php?title=VaginaPagina_FAQ), as linked here:

--What are VP's rules? (http://www.vaginapagina.com/index.php?title=VaginaPagina_FAQ#What_are_the_rules.3F)
--What is "safe space"? (http://www.vaginapagina.com/index.php?title=VaginaPagina_FAQ#What_is_.22Safe_Space.22.3F)
--What do you mean by "empowerment" and why is it important in VP? (http://www.vaginapagina.com/index.php?title=VaginaPagina_FAQ#What_do_you_mean_by_.22empowerment.22_and_why_is_it_important_in_VP.3F)

You are more than welcome to make a post over in contact_vp or to contact us via email (http://www.vaginapagina.com/contact.php) If you'd like to talk more about this matter or clarify any points; we only ask that you refrain from commenting further here out of respect for the OP. For that reason, replies to this thread will be frozen.

Thanks,
Tori
For the VP Team (http://www.vaginapagina.com/contact.php)
contact_vp

[ellinht.livejournal.com]

hm.. I heard on television (in Aust) that is it very close to 18 these days.
I was 14 though.

[bellebass.livejournal.com]

Either way is sad. :(

[ellinht.livejournal.com]

why is it sad?

sorry just curious about your opinion. :)

[pyraterose.livejournal.com]

dude, I'm going to be 18 in 3 weeks and I've never even been KISSED (or had a bf, for that matter) before. Let alone had sex. ;(

[123berries.livejournal.com]

Just so you know, that's totally normal. Older than that is normal too. :)

[ends-and-means.livejournal.com]

i'd be interested to know what percent of kids willingly had sex so young to make the average 12 (if it is, in fact, 12) versus rape/incest/etc... that, i could understand skewing it. otherwise, 12? so depressing.

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Most of the girls having kids at the age of 9 are child abuse cases, I believe.

[indis-earfalas.livejournal.com]

While I don't doubt that the age of some kids having sex is 12 - I don't think that's the average age.

Anecdotally, when I was younger the "average" was 17-20. Now it seems to be 15-17 - but that's just here, mostly middle class, relatively ethnically diverse, not hugely religious, fairly good sex education with relatively open parents. I couldn't say, about other places.

[thethirdbar.livejournal.com]

my little sister's just turned 12, and the idea of her having sex is just horrific! i think 12 is way too young to be considered to be the average age, though undoubtedly some people have sex at 12.

i was a month shy of 18 and my best friend was a couple of weeks before me, so she was about 3 months into 18. i'm fairly sure we were pretty slow movers in comparison to a lot of girls we went to school with, though i've absolutely zero idea about boys aside from my boyfriend, who wasn't much over 17 his first and only time before me.

i'd guess the average age is probably around 15-17, yeah, with a considerable amount in the 14-18 range, too. i'm fairly happy with how old i was, though i can't imagine being much younger.

[123berries.livejournal.com]

I'm with most people here, 12 is YOUNG.

I was 16. I always thought that was "the age," always. I think it has to be around there. Maybe a bit younger, but 12?

I do know, however, that my boyfriend was very young. Very, very young. I'm not sure exactly, but around 6. Consentual on both parts. It was experimentation, like "playing doctor," but gone further than most.

[rahnia.livejournal.com]

I always thought 16 was "the age" too, and I'm not sure why. It was just something I thought. Until I was about 12, I entertained visions of waiting until marriage, but once I actually started going through puberty (also I lost my faith, so that may have had something to do with it) that kind of stopped.

I ended up being 15 1/2 when I first had sex, and I've never regretted it. I was ready, and I don't think you can put an age on ready. For some people it's when they're married, or when they're older, for others it's not. It depends.

[katydidnt98.livejournal.com]

15-17 is probably more accurate, though you're going to get some regional variation. I think it makes sense that people are losing their virginity a bit younger now than in the past because the age of onset of puberty has also gone down.

Looking back, I'm actually surprised that I lasted as long as I did. I didn't have sex until 11 years after my first period, and 13 years after the first signs of puberty showed. That's a LONG time to be feeling the effects of hormones and not to be doing anything about them.

[fennec-fox-rox.livejournal.com]

I am 16, and I know two girls in my class who both lost their virginity aged 11. They were best friends and both dated the same boy (not at the same time), but it transpired he had had sex with both of them. Willingly, in both cases.
In my school year of 100 , about 5 people had probably lost their virginity aged 11/12. So 5%.
Now we are all 16, that number is probably more like 35% - 40%, which is not very high at all in comparison to some other statistics here. Out of my immediate friends - there are 10 of us, all are 16, all of us are still virgins.
Obviously this is just based on my school year - Year 11, Grammar School in SE England, fairly middleclass families with good sex ed etc.
(We have probably also been scared off by the fact that the town I live in has the highest STD rate in the country - 1/3 of women have chlamydia)

[quixotic.livejournal.com]

this article (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6839072) might be helpful. it seems to be closer to 16 rather than 12.

-a

[auraesque.livejournal.com]

Just want to chime in that many of my guy and girlfriends who are 19 to 22 years old are still virgins. This is a crew of average film students, most very likable and dating, but just not sexually active.

[rahnia.livejournal.com]

Not sure if this has already been said, but there was an article on MSNBC recently saying the average age was 14 years 9 months...the 12 you're thinking of is oral sex, or at least that's what Oprah magazine said recently. And a bunch of other sources. Seriously though, check MSNBC, I think it was buried in an article about that huge study that just came out debunking abstinence-only sex ed.

[https://users.livejournal.com/likeastar-/]

Todays 'The View' said that 30% of (American? I think) 13 year old have had sex. So...I doubt 12 is the average. Besides, average are misleading.

[valkynlu.livejournal.com]

A friend of my sister-in-law had her first baby when she was 9. She's had 10 total and she's just under 30. All have been put up for adoption except for 2 (twins). It is insane.