National Health Statistics Reports, Number 104, June 22, 2017

Figure 1. Trends in the percentage of never-married males and females aged 15–19 who 

have ever had sexual intercourse: United States, 1988–2015

Pe

rc

en

t

Pe

rc

en

t

Female

Female

Male

Male

1

The downward trend in the percentage of teenagers who had sex at least once from 1988 to 2011–2015 was statistically 

significant (p < 0.05).

2

The change from 2006–2010 to 2011–2015 for male teenagers was not significant.  

NOTE: CI is confidence interval.

SOURCES: NCHS, National Survey of Family Growth, 1988, 1995, 2002, 2006–2010, 2011–2015. Male data for 1988 

and 1995 are from the Urban Institute, National Survey of Adolescent Males.

2006–2010

2011–2015

1995

1988

2002

95% CI

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1

60

55

46

42

2

44

1

51 49

46

43

42

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National Health Statistics Reports    Number 104    June 22, 2017 

Page 5

never-married Hispanic males and the 

42.8% among never-married non-Hispanic 

white males in this age group. This 

difference between non-Hispanic white 

and black males has persisted through all 

five survey periods (10–12). The absence 

of a difference in the percentage of 

teenagers who were sexually experienced 

between Hispanic males and non-Hispanic 

white males in 2011–2015 is a change 

from 2006–2010, when the percentage 

for Hispanic males was higher than the 

percentage for non-Hispanic white males. 

Table 1

 also shows sexual experience 

among teenagers by family structure 

(parental living arrangements) at age 

14, their mother’s age at her first child’s 

birth, and their mother’s education. 

For both male and female teenagers, 

a significantly lower percentage were 

sexually experienced if they lived with 

both parents when they were 14 and, 

for males, if their mothers gave birth 

to their first child at age 20 or over. 

For example, in 2011–2015, 36.8% of 

female never-married teenagers who 

lived with both parents at age 14 were 

sexually experienced compared with 

50.8% among those who were living in 

any other family structure at that age. 

A similar pattern was observed among 

male teenagers: 39.4% of those who lived 

with both parents at age 14 were sexually 

experienced compared with 51.9% 

among those who lived in any other 

family structure.

The percentage of male teenagers 

who were sexually experienced varied 

by the amount of education their mothers 

had attained. For those with mothers 

who did not have a high school diploma 

or General Educational Development 

high school equivalency diploma (GED), 

46.7% had had sex compared with 41.0% 

among those whose mothers had at least 

some college. For female teenagers, no 

differences in the percentage who were 

sexually experienced were observed 

between maternal education groups. For 

females, this is a change from past years, 

when a higher level of maternal education 

was associated with lower percentages of 

those who were sexually experienced for 

both female and male teenagers (12).