What are your numbers? CDC conducts sex history survey

When I was in junior high my friends and I knew next to nothing about sex. I went to a Catholic school and when your sex education classes are taught by a nun, well, you can imagine how ineffectual they are. When I switched to the public high school however, kids were a bit more knowledgeable. Scary knowledgeable when, at my current age and parent status, I reflect on it. Kids today seem to be aware of things even sooner; so have things changed through the years? As a nation, are we sexually active earlier than we used to be? Even in the wake of sexually transmitted diseases do we have more partners than before? The National Center for Health Statistics conducted a survey on sexual behavior, orientation, and attraction.

The survey questioned men and women ranging in age from 15-44. Some of the surveys results include:

• 12% of males and 10% of females from ages 15-19 had engaged in oral sex, but not vaginal intercourse. The number drops to 3% by ages 22-24.
• 30-44 year old males report an average of 6-8 sexual partners; women in the same age group report about four.
• 3% of males and 4% of females report having sexual activity with a member of their same sex within the past 12 months. When a similar question was asked except the time frame expanded to over their lifetime the numbers rose to 6% for males and 11% for females.
  
• 29% of men who had engaged in male-male contact had been tested for HIV. Only 14% of men with no same-sex contact had been tested.