If you are having your first sexual encounter after the age of 30 then you belong to a small group in India. However more than 90 percent of first sexual encounters happen before the age of 30, according to to data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), a large-scale nationally representative survey conducted in 2015-16, said a Livemint report.
The data further reveals that most of the men lose their virginity at the age of 20-24, and for women the peak age for first sex is at 15-19. The reason behind the age difference for first sex between men and women is marriage. Most sexual encounters in India tend to be of the conjugal kind, the data suggests. Thus, women tend to have sex at an earlier age because they get married at a younger age.
However the first sex depends on the education of a people, if a person is highly qualified he will be spending his time in college for studying and that is why they get married later. That is why the age for first intercourse for such people tends to be later.
Sex before marriage is still a taboo in India, and percentage of the people is low in the country. Only about 11% of single men and 2% of single women in the 15-24 age-group reported to have sex. Two states in India have men who had sex before marriage, age between (15-24 ) Chhattisgarh (21.1% ) and Madhya Pradesh (20.7%).The NFHS data on sexual relations is based on a sample of more than 100,000 men and women each.
The data also revealed that North Indians are more active in sex life compared to South. More than 55% of both men and women respondents in states such as Haryana, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal reported having sex in the four weeks prior to being surveyed. Other states where a majority of people reported an active sex life are Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Sexually active single males is relatively higher (above 5%) in the states such as Punjab, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. While sexually active single females is relatively higher in Karnataka (2%) and Gujarat (1.9%). Singles include never-married persons as well as those who were married but are not married now.
14% of never-married men and 2% of never-married women reported having had sex, the rates vary across states.