If you were born 25 years ago, you'd probably be having more sex than you are now — especially if you're married. That's the take-away from new research in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.
According to the research, Americans were having sex 9 times more per year in the late 1990s than we are now.
Sure, 9 times doesn't sound like much of a dip, but that's just an average. Among married people, the drop in sexy times was much sharper.
Married people went from having sex about 73 times per year in 1990 to about 55 in 2014, the research found.
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The fact that married people are getting it on less often and that there are more single people, who have less sex than married people or people living with a partner generally, are the two main reasons for this dip, researchers theorize in the study.
To find these numbers, they looked at data from the national General Social Survey, which surveyed more than 26,000 people from 1989 to 2014.
But is less sex necessarily a bad thing? According to the researchers, it could be a catalyst for fewer happy marriages.
“Are they less happy and thus having less sex or are they having less sex and therefore less happy? It’s probably some of both,” Jean Twenge, lead author on the research, told The Washington Post.
While they can't pinpoint an exact reason married people are having so much less sex, and that their marriages are possibly suffering because of it, the researchers think it could be because everyone is just so damn tired.
“I would say the number one cause for a lack of sex is fatigue,” Twenge told The Washington Post. “You have many more women and men working to create a two-income family to stay middle class or above…People’s minds are occupied with things other than the physical connection."
Maybe this is disheartening news, but having less sex isn't necessarily a bad thing. All that matters is that you and your partner(s) are satisfied in the bedroom. Still, if you need help keeping things hot, check out these 30 sex tips for long-term couples.