Virgin numbers are on the rise in UK due to fear of intimacy

The number of young people in Britain who have never had sex is on the rise – partly due to the fear of intimacy and being humiliated on social media, a study has found.

One in eight 26-year-olds told researchers from the Next Steps project – which charts the private lives of millennials – that they were virgins.

This is a considerable rise compared to previous generations, where the figure was one in 20.

‘Millennials have been brought up in a culture of hypersexuality which has bred a fear of intimacy,’ Susanna Abse, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist at the Balint Consultancy, told the Sunday Times.

‘The women are always up for it with beautiful bodies – and the men have permanent erections… The fear for young men is of being humiliated that they can’t live up to that, plus the fear of exposure in your Facebook group, ‘ she continued.

It is possible that the real figure for virginity is even higher.

‘The women are always up for it with beautiful bodies – and the men have permanent erections… The fear for young men is of being humiliated that they can’t live up to that, plus the fear of exposure in your Facebook group,’ said Susanna Abse, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist at the Balint Consultancy

If those interviewed in 2016 who refused to answer the question were also virgins, the figure rises to one in six, according to Steve McKay, distinguished professor in social research at Lincoln University. 

The Next Steps study has focused on 16,000 millennials – those born in 1989-1990 – who grew up through the first major advances in the internet and social media.

In spring 2004, the Department for Education started the project, which monitored Year 9 pupils attending state and independent schools across England. 

The Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the UCL Institute of Education took over the study in 2013.