text: Curious what people are up to when it comes to sex? 
   
   For some of us, not much, according to a new report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics which painstakingly details the country’s sexual habits. 
   
   Based on in-person interviews with approximately 13,500 men and women between the ages of 15 to 44, the report describes who’s having sex with whom, what kind of sex they’re having, and who has yet to become sexually involved. 
   
   Yes, virginity is apparently making a comeback. 
   
   Researchers found that between 2006 and 2008, the percentage of 15- to 24-year-old men who had never had any form of sexual contact with another person was 27 percent (up from 22 percent in 2002) while the percentage of 15- to 24-year-old females who had never had any sex whatsoever was 29 percent (up 7 percent points from 22 percent in 2002). 
   
   Anjani Chandra, a health scientist at the NCHS and lead author of the study, says 15- to 19-year-olds made up the lion’s share of this category, a finding that seems to counter other reports regarding teen sex trends. 
   
   “I think a lot of people misconstrue this as meaning they’ve never had vaginal sex,” she says. “But this is no sexual contact of any kind. They didn’t have oral sex or anal sex. They didn’t have anything.” 
   
   Chandra says she couldn’t speculate as to why there appears to be more virgins in our midst, but said it could be due to sex education, messages about abstinence or that it might hinge on the truthfulness of the respondents. 
   
   “It’s what they’re telling us and we have to take it on faith,” she says. 
   
   Women more likely to have same-sex experiences 
   
   Further data collected from the survey, which asked men and women about their sexual behavior, sexual attraction and sexual identity, found that among adults aged 25 to 44, about 98 percent of females and 97 percent of males have had vaginal intercourse; 89 percent of females and 90 percent of men have had oral sex with an opposite-sex partner; and 36 percent of females and 44 percent of males have had anal sex with an opposite-sex partner. 
   
   The survey also found that women aged 15 to 44 were more than twice as likely to have had a same-sex experience as men of the same age (in 2006-2008, approximately 12.5 percent of women reported a same-sex experience compared with 5.2 percent of men). 
   
   Other data showed that women with four or more sexual partners in their lifetime were more likely to have had a female sexual partner, compared with women who had had no male partners or women who’ve had only one male partner. While the percentage of men and women who reported they were either straight or homosexual was similar, the percentage of women who reported they were bisexual was more than three times as high as men. 
   
   Chandra says one of the things that stood out for her in the report was the same-sex reporting for women. 
   
   “There was speculation that it was possibly just experimentation among college girls but we didn’t see anything to support that,” she says. “We saw the opposite. When we look at college-degreed women, they were less likely to report same-sex activity than other educational groups. Among men, there’s more same-sex activity among higher-educated men. And for women, the highest level of same-sex activity was reported by those with less education.” 
   
   Sexual categories more fluid than thought? 
   
   According to Chandra, data from the survey — which tapped a general household population and did not include high-risk groups such as the homeless or incarcerated — will be used to provide better education and STD prevention efforts. But she says the data is also essential in order to better understand people’s sexual activities and proclivities. 
   
   “It’s important to realize there are not separate groups of sexual people,” she says. “You can’t just think ‘Here are the heterosexual people; here are the homosexual people.’ People draw their partners from all different places. There are not necessarily clear boundaries between the population groups that engage in this behavior or that behavior.” 
   
   Survey data was collected in person by about 40 female interviewers who met one-on-one with participants. Using a laptop, participants would see the question on the screen or listen to a question through a set of headphones. They would then type their answer directly onto the computer, a method that, according to the report, “has been found to yield more complete reporting of sensitive behaviors.” 
   
   The audio for the interview questions – many of them quite explicit (i.e., “Has a male ever put his penis in your rectum or butt — also known as anal sex?”) — was recorded by a female employee of the University of Michigan. 
   
   “We are considering whether we should use a computer-generated voice for future surveys, though,” says Chandra. “Or we might try out ways where a respondent could choose different voices.” ||||| Among the findings of a sweeping federal government survey of American sexual behavior is one that may surprise those bewailing a permissive and eros-soaked popular culture: More than one-quarter of people interviewed in their late teens and early 20s had never had sex. 
   
   And the number was growing. 
   
   The latest round of the quaintly named National Survey of Family Growth found that among 15-to-24-year-olds, 29 percent of females and 27 percent of males reported no sexual contact with another person ever - up from the 22 percent of both sexes when the survey was last conducted in 2002. 
   
   "The public's general perception is that when it comes to young people and sex, the news is bad and likely to get worse," said Bill Albert, chief program officer of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, an advocacy organization in Washington. 
   
   The seventh and latest round of the survey, first done in 1973, provides a corrective to that view. 
   
   "Many, many young people have been very receptive to the message of delaying sexual activity," Albert said. "There's no doubt about it." He added that the nearly 40 percent reduction in teen pregnancy since the 1990s - which experts attribute to both increased condom use and increased abstinence - represents "extraordinary progress on a social issue that many once considered intractable." 
   
   The uptick in abstinence is one of many revealing facts arising from structured interviews with a random sample of 13,495 Americans, ages 15 to 44, that were done from 2006 to 2008. The findings provide evidence for almost every theory and supposition about the nation's secret sex life. 
   
   The survey results, released Thursday, suggest that oral sex may be a gateway to vaginal sex but that for some teens it is a stopping point. Most adults are monogamous. About 4 in 10 adults have had anal sex. Women are more likely than men to have same-sex liaisons. Or at least are more comfortable talking about them. 
   
   Conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services, the survey provides basic information for public health policymakers concerned with such issues as sexually transmitted disease. There is no single fact that it is trying to ferret out or message that its 49 pages of text and tables seek to deliver. 
   
   But Anjani Chandra, the demographer who is the lead author of the report, said that "for some people, it may be news that these behaviors exist at all in the general population." 
   
   When first run, the survey queried only married and formerly married women. Single women and then men were later included, as were more detailed questions about sexual practices. 
   
   Parts of the survey are now so explicit that even though the interviewer and subject are face to face, some questions are asked and answered using a computer screen so that the answers are completely private.
target: – A new federal study suggests more young men and women are remaining virgins longer. In the 15-24 age group, 27% of men and 29% of women say they've never had a sexual encounter of any kind, reports MSNBC. That's up from 22% for both groups from the last study in 2002. Other findings: In the 25-44 age group, 97% of men and 98% of women have had vaginal intercourse, and about 90% in both groups have had oral sex, notes the Washington Post. 36% of women and 44% of men in the age group have had anal sex. 12.5% of women reported a same-sex experience, vs. 5.2% of men. 21% of men say they've had at least 15 sex partners, compared with 8% of women. To read about Northwestern's hey-watch-this approach to sex ed, click here.