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Why do some people never have sex, even later in life? An international research team involving the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, set out to answer this question. The largest study to date of people without sexual experience found that virginity in older age is linked to a complex mix of psychological, social, and genetic factors. The paper was recently published in the journal PNAS.
The study was led by researchers at the Amsterdam University Medical Centre (UMC) in the Netherlands and the University of Queensland in Australia. The research team analyzed data from more than 400,000 British individuals aged 39 to 73. Around one percent of participants stated that they had never had sex. On average, this group had a higher level of education, but reported feeling lonelier, more anxious, and less happy than those with sexual experience.
The researchers also found that late-life virginity was more common in areas with greater socioeconomic income inequality. For men in particular, physical strength and the local ratio of women to men played a role: those who did not have sex were more likely to be physically weaker and tended to live in regions with a lower female population. “Romantic and sexual relationships are often important sources of social support. Their absence is associated with loneliness, anxiety, depressive feelings, and reduced well-being,” explains co-first author Laura Wesseldijk of the MPIEA.
About 15 percent of the variation in lifelong sexlessness can be explained by genetic factors. Co-first author Abdel Abdellaoui of the Amsterdam UMC reports: “What stands out most is the overlap with genetic factors related to intelligence, education, and psychiatric conditions such as autism.” The study further showed that people who had never had sex were less likely to consume alcohol and drugs, and more likely to have worn glasses at a young age. “We see a pattern of people who are more socially withdrawn and therefore more often struggle to find a partner,” says co-senior author Brendan Zietsch of the University of Queensland.
According to co-senior author Karin Verweij of the Amsterdam UMC, the findings highlight that sexlessness is the result of a complex interplay between biological and social factors: “It is certainly not about ‘virginity genes.’ Our results show that environment, personality, and genetics all contribute. The associations we found do not directly prove cause and effect, but they do reveal how different factors are related to sexlessness.”
The researchers emphasize that their findings do not carry any value judgments. For some people, not having sex is simply a deliberate choice. Although the team could not distinguish between voluntary and involuntary virginity, they were able to map out the numerous factors associated with it. The study thus offers new insights and provides new starting points for follow-up research, both on the relationship of sexlessness with mental health and well-being, as well as to address evolutionary questions.
Max-Planck-Institute for Empirical Aesthetics
Laura Wesseldijk, PhD: laura.wessedijk@ae.mpg.de
Miriam Mosing, PhD: Miriam.mosing@ae.mpg.de
Abdellaoui, A., Wesseldijk, L. W., Gordon, S. D., Pasman, J. A., Smit, D. J. A., Androvičová, R., Martin, N. G., Ullén, F., Mosing, M. A., Zietsch, B. P., & Verweij, K. J. H. (2025). Large-Scale Study Links Sexlessness to Physical, Cognitive, and Personality Traits, Socioecological Factors, and DNA. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122(38), e2418257122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2418257122
Virginity in older age is linked to a complex mix of psychological, social, and genetic factors.
Copyright: (MPI for Empirical Aesthetics / F. Bernoully)
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