People in Germany are having less and less sex. That’s according to the latest “Leisure Monitor” study. The reason? Researchers believe it might have something to do with stress. 

Sexual activity dwindling in Germany

For more than 30 years, the Leisure Monitor (Freizeit-Monitor) study has regularly carried out research on the recreational behaviour of people in Germany, from what they watch on TV to how often they get between the sheets. This year’s survey found that only one in every two people (52 percent) has sex at least once per month. Five years ago, the figure was 56 percent. 

Contrary to the stereotype, the investigation found that it is parents in Germany who are having the most sex. 59 percent of parents in the 25 - 49 age group have sex at least once a week and 82 percent at least once a month. Close behind are childless couples, 58 percent of whom reported having sex at least once weekly, and 85 percent monthly. The age at which young people have sex for the first time is also slowly rising. 

According to the study, singles aren’t the ones having the most fun - in fact, along with retirees in Germany, they are having the least sex of everybody. Only 27 percent have sex at least once a week, and 49 percent once a month, which just puts them ahead of the pensioners (7 percent of those aged 65 plus have sex once a week and 23 percent once a month). 

Germans increasingly under pressure

The report’s authors seem convinced that the dwindling level of hanky-panky in Germany is related to increasing pressures both at work and at home. “Non-work-related stress has further increased,” says Professor Ulrich Reinhardt, the scientific director of the Leisure Monitor. “As a result, people in Germany take less and less time for sex and eroticism.”

The study links these higher stress levels to the rise of smartphones and social media: bombarded by images of other people's perfect lives, it argues, people are increasingly feeling a pressure to make the most of everything and thus "over-performing" in their free time - bouncing from one activity to the next, wanting to be present everywhere and not miss out on anything.

But by hurtling between free time pursuits, Reinhardt feels, we are actually impairing our ability to enjoy them. What's more, all this bustling about and obsession with smartphones leaves very little time for sex and relationships. If your partner is glued to their phone all the time, romance isn't exactly in the air.