Teen sex becoming less common: report

This may come as a shock to anyone who has walked into a high school in recent years and seen the outfits kids these day wear. Apparently, sexy outfits don't necessarily translate into sex.

A new study has found that fewer teenagers in the United States are now having sex than their counterparts in the past. Research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that about 43 percent of unmarried teenage girls and 42 percent of unmarried teenage boys have had sex at least once by age 19. The number has dropped from 51.1 percent of girls and 60.4 percent of boys in 2002, as reported by The New York Times.

Teens are also more likely to use contraception during sex, and teen girls are less likely to get pregnant, according to the study, "Teenagers in the
United States: Sexual Activity, Contraceptive Use, and Childbearing, 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth."

“The percentage of teenage girls who have had sex is the same across ethnicities,” Gladys Martinez, the report’s lead author, told the Times. “This is the first time that has happened, and the leveling off is due mainly to the smaller percentages of black teenage girls who have had sex.”

The report found that the number one reason teenagers are holding back from having sex before they are older and married is religious and moral beliefs. The second most likely response among boys who had not yet had sex was that they were waiting to find the right person.

Here is a chart showing the findings.