Sexual intercourse activity and activities associated with sexual interaction in Norwegians of different sexual orientations and ages

Figures & data

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of the sample (percent).

		All	Men	Women	Sig.	Norway^a
Gender	Male	52.7
	Female	47.3
	Other	0.3
	N=	4160
Place of residence	Rural	16.3	17.8	14.7	***
	Small town	26.8	28.1	25.4
	Urban/city	56.8	54.1	59.9
	N=	4144	2172	1969
Level of education	6–8 years of school	0.8	1.2	0.4	***
	9–10 years of school	4.6	5.3	3.9		25,8
	12–13 years of school	30.4	31.9	28.7		40,1
	Bachelor degree or the like	41.4	39.2	43.8		24.1
	Master degree, Ph.D. or the like	22.8	22.4	23.2		10.0
	N=	4140	2170	1970
Marital status	Unmarried	25.4	25.3	25.6	***
	Separated/divorced	8.4	7.0	10.0
	Widow/widower	2.8	2.1	3.5
	Married/cohabitant/registered partnership	63.4	65.7	61.0
	N=	4160	2181	1970
Religiosity	No	59.5	59.2	59.8	ns
	Yes, Christian—no denomination	18.1	17.7	18.4
	Yes, Roman Catholic	0.7	0.6	0.9
	Yes, Protestant	17.1	17.3	16.8
	Yes, Baptist/Methodist/Evangeline	2.8	3.4	2.1
	Islam/Muslim	0.7	0.6	0.7
	Other	1.2	1.1	1.2
	N=	4061	2141	1920
Sexual orientation	Homosexual/lesbian	2.6	3.9	1.2	***
	Heterosexual	93.5	92.7	94.3
	Bisexual/pansexual	3.3	2.8	3.8
	Asexual	0.6	0.5	0.7
	Other	0.1	0.1	0.0
	N=	4081	2140	1941

^aCentral Bureau of Statistics 2018, persons 16 years and over.

***p < .001; ns = not statistically significant.

Table 4. Reported sexual activities during the most recent intercourse (multiple response, percent).

	All	Men	Women
Vaginal intercourse	89.0	87.3	90.8
I/my partner stimulated the genitals with hands	68.8	68.6	69.0
I/my partner stimulated the genitals with mouth	42.9	44.4	41.2
Anal intercourse	4.4	5.6	3.1
Use of sex toys	11.0	11.4	10.6
I had an orgasm	65.6	73.2	57.1
My partner had an orgasm	67.7	63.3	72.6
N=	3605	1905	1700

Note. Percentages exceed 100%, because multiple responses were possible.

Table 5. Reported sexual activities during the most recent intercourse, by gender, age groups and sexual orientation (multiple response, percent of cases).

	Men						Women
	18–29		30–59		60 +		18–29		30–59		60 +
	LGBTIA	Hetero-sexual	LGBTIA	Hetero-sexual	LGBTIA	Hetero-sexual	LGBTIA	Hetero-sexual	LGBTIA	Hetero-sexual	LGBTIA	Hetero-sexual
Vaginal intercourse	19.4	88.6	25.0	94.4	54.5	88.7	65.0	93.6	50.0	93.5	40.0	90.7
I/my partner stimulated the genitals with hands	75.0	82.4	67.5	71.1	72.7	57.0	90.0	81.2	81.0	71.1	80.0	48.3
I/my partner stimulated the genitals with mouth	69.4	54.9	56.3	46.3	36.4	32.4	57.5	47.5	64.3	45.0	40.0	21.5
Anal intercourse	41.7	3.1	43.8	4.1	0.0	1.2	5.0	3.8	7.1	3.7	0.0	0.5
Use of sex toys	13.9	17.3	10.0	13.4	0.0	4.9	12.5	15.3	11.9	11.7	20.0	3.4
I had an orgasm	72.2	80.4	68.8	79.4	45.5	60.0	55.0	58.7	66.7	62.2	80.0	44.0
My partner had an orgasm	66.7	65.5	75.0	67.9	45.5	52.9	77.5	84.2	66.7	78.0	60.0	49.6
N=	36	255	80	992	11	512	40	373	42	849	5	377

Note. Percentages exceed 100%, because multiple responses were possible.

Table 6. Reported sexual activities during the most recent intercourse, by gender, relationship status and sexual orientation (multiple response, percent of cases).

	Men				Women
	Not partnered		Partnered		Not partnered		Partnered
	LGBTIA	Heterosexual	LGBTIA	Heterosexual	LGBTIA	Heterosexual	LGBTIA	Heterosexual
Vaginal intercourse	22.8	90.9	28.6	92.2	70.0	96.5	49.1	91.7
I/my partner stimulated the genitals with hands	68.4	66.0	71.4	69.2	86.7	62.0	84.2	70.1
I/my partner stimulated the genitals with mouth	59.6	54.4	57.1	41.1	63.3	44.9	57.9	38.4
Anal intercourse	38.6	7.5	40.0	2.2	3.3	3.2	7.0	2.8
Use of sex toys/dildo	10.5	10.1	10.0	11.8	3.3	6.2	17.5	12.1
I had an orgasm	61.4	69.2	72.9	74.9	56.7	44.4	64.9	61.4
My partner had an orgasm	66.7	58.5	72.9	64.2	73.3	66.7	70.2	74.8
N=	57	318	70	1439	30	403	57	1194

Note. Percentages exceed 100%, because multiple responses were possible.

Table 7. Sexual activities during the most recent intercourse, by gender, age, relationship status and sexual orientation (multiple linear regression analysis).

	Vaginal intercourse		Stimulated the genitals with hands		Stimulated the genitals with mouth		Anal intercourse		Use of sex toys/dildo		I had an orgasm		My partner had an orgasm
	Beta	P-value	Beta	P-value	Beta	P-value	Beta	P-value	Beta	P-value	Beta	P-value	Beta	P-value
Gender	.00	.996	−.04	.020	−.07	.000	−.07	.000	−.03	.106	−.19	.000	.06	.001
Sexual orientation	.35	.000	−.01	.735	−.04	.013	−.24	.000	.01	.470	.02	.168	.01	.569
Relationship status	.02	.328	.08	.000	−.05	.001	−.05	.004	.06	.000	.12	.000	.08	.000
Age	−.05	.002	−.23	.000	−.18	.000	−.06	.000	−.13	.000	−.16	.000	−.20	.000
N=	3764		3764		3764		3764		3764		3764		3764
R^2	12.1%		5.7%		4.2%		7.3%		1.9%		6.8%		4.8%

Table 2. Frequency of sexual intercourse during the past month, by gender and relationship status (percent).

					Men		Women
	All	Men	Women	Sig.	Not partnered	Partnered	Not partnered	Partnered
No times	36.8	34.5	39.3	**	74.1	24.2***	83.3	23.2***
Once the past month	12.0	12.8	11.1		9.0	13.9	6.6	12.8
2 or 3 times the past month	22.3	24.1	20.2		10.7	27.6	6.3	25.3
Once a week	11.9	12.7	11.1		3.7	15.0	1.3	14.7
2 or 3 times per week	15.0	14.0	16.1		2.2	17.2	2.1	21.2
Once a day	1.5	1.2	1.8		0.2	1.5	0.4	2.3
More often than once a day	0.5	0.5	0.4		0.0	0.7	0.0	0.5
N=	3693	1930	1763		401	1526	473	1288

**p < .01; ***p < .001.

Table 3. Frequency of sexual intercourse during the past month in partnered persons, by age group (percent).

Years	< 30	30–44	45–59	60 +
No times	9.0	15.6	24.4	42.8***
Once the past month	7.4	14.1	15.9	14.3
2 or 3 times the past month	23.8	31.5	27.1	22.0
Once a week	19.4	15.4	13.5	12.4
2 or 3 times per week	34.8	20.3	18.0	7.7
Once a day	4.2	2.2	0.9	0.8
More often than once a day	1.4	1.0	0.1	0.0
N=	500	874	704	736

***p < .001.