A new population-based study suggests that sexual desire varies across demographic and relationship factors, with age and gender showing the strongest associations. The analysis, published in Scientific Reports and led by Toivo Aavik, PhD, of the University of Tartu, Estonia, used survey data from 67,334 adults enrolled in the Estonian Biobank and provides clinicians with large-scale context for how sexual desire is distributed in the general population.

Sexual desire is a common concern in psychiatry and sexual medicine, especially in patients with depression, anxiety, relationship distress, antidepressant or other medication-related effects, or reproductive and life-stage changes. However, there are limited population benchmarks to help clinicians interpret how desire typically changes with age, partnership status, and other common variables.

In this study, participants completed a brief two-item measure of sexual desire based on agreement with statements about sexual urges and sexual thoughts. Researchers then examined how desire related to factors such as age, gender, sexual orientation, relationship status, relationship satisfaction, education, occupation, and parenthood.

Overall, men reported higher sexual desire than women across most age groups, with men’s desire peaking around age 40 before gradually declining. Sexual desire declined with age in both genders, but the decrease was more pronounced among women. As a result, the difference between men and women tended to be larger in older age groups.

Sexual orientation also showed differences in average desire. Bisexual and pansexual participants reported higher desire than heterosexual participants, while asexual participants reported the lowest desire. These patterns remained following adjustment for other demographic variables.

Relationship-related factors were linked to desire, but the associations were smaller than the effects of age and gender. Higher relationship satisfaction was associated with higher sexual desire, although the overall relationship was modest. Relationship status also mattered: in unadjusted analyses, partnered participants reported higher desire than those living alone. However, in multivariate models adjusting for age and other factors, being partnered predicted slightly lower desire, suggesting that the raw association may have been confounded by variables such as age.

Parenthood was associated with sexual desire in different ways for men and women. Having more children was linked to slightly lower desire among women, while the pattern was less negative—or even positive—for men. The study also examined recent childbirth, but the researchers noted that postpartum associations varied depending on how the models were structured, highlighting the complexity of interpreting these effects in broad population data.

Across analyses, the researchers estimated that the included demographic and relationship factors accounted for about 28% of variation in sexual desire, with gender and age contributing the largest share.

While age and gender patterns are consistent at the population level, individual assessment remains important, particularly when evaluating low desire in the context of mental health symptoms, medication exposure, or relationship concerns.

Source: Scientific Reports