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Welcome to Playboy’s Gen Z Sex Survey. In partnership with The Kinsey Institute and the sexual health brand Julie, we talked to 2,373 adults ages 18 to 29 about their sex lives to get to the bottom of the so-called sex recession, and to get more insight on what’s really going on in the bedroom. Check out the full survey results here. This survey also appears in our Fall 2026 print issue. To have Playboy delivered to your door, subscribe here.
“Modern-day dating is an absolute mess.” That was how a 28-year-old woman from Pennsylvania described dating today, explaining her theory for why Gen Z is having less sex than the generations before it.
For years, we’ve been told that young adults are losing interest in romance. They’re dating less, drinking less, and supposedly abandoning sex altogether. Depending on the headline, they’re too anxious, too online, or simply too busy to bother. Playboy’s 2026 Gen Z Sex Survey suggests there’s one crucial piece of the story that tends to get overlooked. They still want sex. Nearly 80 percent of young adults reported moderate to very high levels of sexual desire. Even among singles, the group most often characterized as opting out of dating altogether, almost three-quarters said the same.
What’s changed isn’t the wanting. The journey from wanting intimacy to actually finding it has become increasingly complicated. Along the way, young adults encounter obstacle after obstacle—each one making it a little harder to turn desire into connection. Some are logistical.
One 25-year-old man from California put it plainly: “People my age are having less sex because they are meeting less people in person.” As another 23-year-old man from California said:
Almost everyone I know that’s my age has some form of social anxiety. It’s hard to hook up with someone if you’re too scared to even talk to anyone.
Technology adds one final layer to the story. Digital intimacy is becoming an increasingly important part of young adults’ lives. Many participants told us that pornography, camming, AI companions, and other forms of digital intimacy fulfilled at least some of their emotional or sexual needs. At the same time, many described these experiences as easier, less emotionally demanding, and more accessible than pursuing intimacy with another person. In other words, the issue doesn’t appear to be that young adults no longer value relationships. Rather, when dating feels exhausting, rejection feels inevitable, privacy is scarce, and money is tight, digital intimacy can become an easier alternative.
All of which suggests that we’ve been asking the wrong question. Instead of asking why Gen Z is having less sex, maybe we should be asking why the path to intimacy has become so much more difficult to navigate. Maybe that’s the simplest explanation of all. Modern-day dating really is an absolute mess, not because Gen Z has stopped wanting love, sex, or connection, but because the journey from desire to intimacy has become more complicated than ever.
For the full breakdown of The Playboy 2026 Gen Z Sex Survey with the Kinsey Institute and Julie, visit sexsurvey.playboy.com.