The French are having less sex but with more partners, while exploring more varied sexual practices, a major nationwide survey has revealed. The findings also show that reports of sexual violence have doubled since the last survey in 2006.
The survey – carried out by Inserm, France's public health research body – is the first major exploration of sexuality in France in nearly two decades. Vast in scale, researchers questioned 31,000 people over a two-year period.
One significant change noted by the survey, published this week, is that young people are having sexual intercourse for the first time a little later – at the age of 18.2 for women and 17.7 for men. In 2006 the reported ages were 17.3 for women and 17.5 for men.
People also reported having more sexual partners than the previous average – women aged 18 to 69 said they had had an average of 7.9 partners in their lifetime, while for men the figure was 16.4. In the 2006 survey, these figures were 4.5 and 11.2 respectively.
However, there were discrepancies in how men and women chose to report the number of people they had slept with. Women took into account only “the men who counted” while men also included “the one-night stands", said sociologist Nathalie Bajos, one of the study’s two main authors.
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Same-sex experiences
In 2023, for the first time, women aged 18-29 reported having had more same-sex relationships than men: 14.8 percent of young women had had at least one partner of the same sex, compared to 9.3 percent of young men.
Nearly a third of women said they've been attracted to the same sex compared to 13.8 percent of men. And more than a third of young women and one in six young men said they were not strictly heterosexual.
The survey suggested one reason for this shift: “In a social context marked by the growing dissemination of feminist ideas, these young women seem to be moving more and more towards other sexual trajectories in which violence and inequality are less prevalent."
Almost 90 percent of women and 56 percent of men aged over 18 said they viewed homosexuality as a sexuality like any other.
Digital dating
Online platforms play a growing role in modern relationships. Among respondents under 30, nearly 40 percent of women and 43.5 percent of men said they had met a sexual partner on the internet.
Additionally, 36.6 percent of women and 39.6 percent of men in the same age group said they had sent intimate images.
Less frequent, more satisfying
The study also identified a drop in the frequency of sexual relations for both sexes and across all age groups.
In 2023, 77.2 percent of women and 81.6 percent of men reported having sex in the past year, down from 82.9 percent and 89.1 percent in 2006.
“This drop should be seen in the context of an increase in the number of sexual encounters considered pleasurable,” said the survey's co-author Armelle Andro.
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“It's a questioning of women's sexual availability in particular, which mechanically leads to a drop in sexual intercourse.”
Despite the decline in frequency, a majority of people remain sexually active, including those aged 50 to 89. Among this group, 56.6 percent of women and 73.8 percent of men reported having had sexual relations.
Sexual satisfaction varies with age but remains relatively high. About 45 percent of women and 39 percent of men across all ages said they were "very satisfied" with their current sex life.
The study also noted a rise in more varied sexual practices. Nearly 80 percent of women aged 18 to 69 said they masturbated, compared to 42.4 percent in 1992 and 56.5 percent in 2006.
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Rising sexual violence
The survey showed a sharp increase in reports of sexual violence.
A third of women aged 18-69 said they had experienced forced intercourse or attempted forced intercourse, compared to 15.9 percent in 2006. For men, the figure rose from 4.6 percent to 8.7 percent.
“These figures reflect both an increase in frequency linked to the lowering of a threshold of tolerance to intra-marital sexual violence, [but also] a greater capacity to identify these facts and declare them in surveys," Bajos said.
Mass rape trial revives question of consent within French law
The findings come as debates about redefining rape under French law resurface.
The Mazan rape trial, where a man is accused of orchestrating his wife’s rape by multiple strangers while she was drugged, has drawn attention to gaps in legal definitions of consent.
The report underscored changing views on marital rape, which was only recognised in French law in 1992.
"Acts that were once considered 'normal' can now be qualified, rightly, as forced intercourse," it said.
