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CNN claims that a survey conducted by Japanese government claimed that 42% of men and 44.2% of women between 18 and 34 are virgins.

I'm not exactly doubting about the survey but more about that the people in survey told the truth.

As far as I know it's not that hard to hire a prostitute in Japan and I think there's still some taboo in Japan about women recognizing to have had sex relationships, although I'm far from being knowledgeable on those things, so this makes me wonder that the survey had more negative answers than the real ones.

Are there some other facts that offer a better calculation of what this percentage could be? In this case would the percentage be similar or different?

Ken Graham
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Jesús Gómez
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1 Answers1

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No.

CNN is misreporting.

The statistics are for the fraction of NEVER MARRIED people who are virgins.

Specifically, the study is The Fifteenth Japanese National Fertility Survey.

The data are in:

Table I-3: Proportion of never-married persons who have never had sexual experience, by survey and age

More specifically, never-married people were asked:

Question: "Have you ever had sexual intercourse with a member of the opposite sex?" (1. Yes, 2. No)

DavePhD
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    So gay people are included in the count no matter how much sex they have. Sounds legit. – BobTheAverage Oct 24 '17 at 18:48
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    @BobTheAverage right, no matter how much gay sex they've had, they are still in the "never had sexual experience" category. So the statistics are really percent of never-married people, 18-34, who have never had heterosexual intercourse. – DavePhD Oct 24 '17 at 18:58
  • Well, yeah. Duh. Was anyone under the impression that this should include married people? Your answer sounds like you shot out of a cannon to make sure and claim CNN is wrong about... anything. – WakeDemons3 Oct 25 '17 at 16:31