Channel 4 News – Sex among over 60s poll

ComRes  interviewed 509 British  adults aged  60  and  over online between the 11th and  13th June 2014. Data were  weighted  to  be  representative  of  GB adults  aged  60+. 

Date Published: 16 Jun 2014

Categories: Health | Public and communities | Social | UK

Description

 Half (48%) of Britons aged 60 and over say that is important to them, 51% say it is not important.

·         Men are significantly more likely than women to say sex is important to them (62% and 35% respectively).

 More than two in five (45%) Britons aged 60+ say they have not had sex in more than a year.

o    4% say they have sex more than twice a week

o    12% once or twice a week.

o    18% a few times a month.

o    6% once a month.

o    10% a few times a year.

 

One in five (22%) older Britons say they used to give oral sex but would not anymore, this is far higher among women than men (29% and 13% respectively).

o    A third (35%) say they are happy to give oral sex, more than half (54%) of men say they are happy to compared to 19% of women.

Older Britons are more slightly more likely to say they are happy to receive oral sex (40%) than give it (35%).

o    One in five (19%) say they used to receive oral sex but would not anymore.

Just 5% of Britons aged 60+ have sought sexual health advice in the last two to three years. This rises to 8% among those who say sex is important to them, with just 1% of those who do not think sex is important.

o    Three quarters (75%) of those who have not sought sexual health advice say they have not done so because they do not need to at their age. This rises with age, 65% of those aged 60-64 say they don’t need to at their age compared to 84% of those aged 75+.

While only 5% have sought sexual health advice, 18% say they would like better access to it.

Around a quarter (23%) believe that after the menopause you no longer need to use condoms, however, seven in ten (68%) agree that it is just as important to use a condom aged 65 as aged 25. 

 Despite this, more than half (55%) say they are less likely to use a condom at their age than when they were younger. Men (63%) are more likely to agree than women (48%).

 

o    There is a stark difference in opinion on the use of condoms with existing partners and new partners:

 

§  Two thirds (66%) of older Britons say they would not use a condom with a long term partner, just 10% say they would not use one with a new partner.

Two thirds (64%) of older Britons think that people aged over 60 are no more or less likely to catch an STD than those aged under 60.

o    14% say older Britons are at a lower risk of catching STDs, while 5% say it is higher.

Two in five (42%) Britons aged 60+ think that the STDs are rising fastest among 16-24 year olds, while just one in eleven (9%) think it is fastest rising among their own age group (60+).

While more than half (56%) of older Britons say they are more sexually confident now than when they were younger, just a quarter (24%) say they enjoy sex more now. 

o    Men are both more likely than women to say they are more sexually confident now (67% men, 47% women), and they enjoy it more now than when they were younger (29% men, 19% women).

A quarter (23%) of Britons aged 60+ say it is harder to talk about sex at their age than it was when they were younger, although 71% disagree.

Three quarters (73%) of older Britons agree that they think about sex less now than when they were younger, this more so the case for women (84%) than men (61%).