Millennials shun sex as one in eight 26-year-olds reveal they are virgins
MILLENNIALS are shunning sex in unprecedented numbers as research reveals one in eight 26-year-old are virgins.
Despite coming of age with apps that can find playmates in minutes, the avocado-addicted 'snowflake' generation aren't getting lucky.
The figures emerged after researchers tracked 16,000 young people born in 1989-90 since the age of 14.
It marks a sharp rise from previous generations, for whom one in 20 had not had sex by the time they turned 26.
And the true figure of celibate 26-year-olds may be even higher according to Steve McKay, distinguished professor in social research at Lincoln University.
The numbers could be as high as one in six if participants who refused to answer questions about their sex lives were virgins.
The Next Step project was initiated by the Department of Education but is now led by the UCL Institute of Education, part of the University College London.
Susanna Abse, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist at the Balint Consultancy, told The Sunday Times: “Millennials have been brought up in a culture of hypersexuality which has bred a fear of intimacy.
"The women are always up for it with beautiful hard bodies and the men have permanent erections. That is daunting to young people.
“The fear for young men is of being humiliated that they can’t live up to that, plus the fear of exposure in your Facebook group.
“It is now compounded by a new morality which is coming around partly in reaction to the hypersexuality. There is no arena to explore in that clumsy way that adolescents have to do.”
Millennials aren't the only ones waiting until their mid-twenties to lose their v-plates.
Victoria's Secret lingerie model Adriana Lima, 36, was a virgin until 27 when she married Marko Jaric.
And comedian Jimmy Carr lost the big V at 26, when he gave up the Catholic faith.
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