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By Yoon Ja-young
One out of three adults in Seoul lived a sexless life over the past one year, a recent study shows. The ratio of those not having sex has increased threefold from 20 years ago, and it is especially high among men in their 20s.
According to joint research conducted by Yonsei University professors, Prof. Youm Yoo-sik of the Sociology Department and Prof. Choi Jun-yong of the Internal Medicine Department, 36 percent of Seoulites had no sex for the past one year. It is based on a survey on 2,182 adults residing in the capital.
In a worldwide study conducted by U.S. drug giant Pfizer in 2000, 11 percent of Koreans said they had no sex life. The figure has more than tripled since.
By gender, women were more likely to go without sex, at 43 percent, while 29 percent of men had no sex.
However, men and women had different reasons for their abstinence. When asked why they had no sex, 24 percent of women said that the lack of interest was their biggest reason. Among men, the top reason cited by 15 percent was that they couldn't find a sex partner, even though they were interested in having sex.
It is notable that 42 percent of young men between the ages of 19 and 29 had no sex during the past year. This percentage is the highest among all age groups of males, even higher than for men in their 60s, at 39 percent. When asked why, twenty-four percent of the young men said that they couldn't find a partner.
Among females, the sexless percentage was the highest among those in their 60s. The sexless ratio among young women in their 20s was 43 percent, but only 13 percent of them said that lacking a partner was the reason.
The researchers also asked the respondents which social class they think they belong to, and the result showed that there is a correlation between the ratio of those who are not having sex and their self-perceived social classes.
"The percentage of people who are not having sex was higher among those who regard themselves as lower social class than those who regard themselves middle to high class. The percentage of those who cited the absence of a partner as the reason for not having a sex life was also high in the lower brackets," the researchers noted.
Among females who said they identified as middle to high class, 65 percent said they had sex over the past year, but the percentage fell to 53 percent among those who regarded themselves as lower class. Among men, the figure was 79 percent for those who identified themselves as middle to high class, versus 67 percent for those who selected the low class category.