From the time they can understand what sex is, religious leaders worldwide and the Bible teach Christians that sex before marriage is wrong. Naturally, there will be some Christians that deviate from that ideal. However, a majority of believers stick to that notion and refrain from premarital sex. Religious worldviews and attitudes may be a key motivation for abstaining from pornography, seeing premarital sex as wrong, and abstaining from sex until marriage. Researchers believe that there is a correlation between religious behavior and sexual abstinence. The group that primarily abstains from sex before marriage may not come as a surprise to the population.

According to General Social Survey, there has been an increase in sexual abstinence among religious nonattenders or occasional attenders. The majority of the rise in sexlessness has been among the religiously devout. Since 2008, never-married people under 35 who got to church more than monthly, the rate of sexlessness has risen from 20 percent to 60 percent in 2021.

Amongst the less religious peers, sexlessness has increased from around 10 percent in 2008 to 20 percent in 2021. Most religious communities see premarital sex as the less preferred sexual arrangement, which could be the reason for the increase in abstinence before marriage.

It could be that Americans who stray from religious, sexual rules find it harder to stay in religious communities since the difference between religious and non-religious worlds becomes bigger. In this situation, as non-religious American culture becomes more focused on sex, the strain with religious standards leaves the church.

This idea implies that a crucial motivating factor in their religious behavior is sex. On the other hand, the behavior of religious people, in general, could be going through changes. Religious young adults are complying with the standards of their communities more firmly than previous generations.

Instead of religious young people changing their metaphysics for validation, they adopt more intense behavioral requirements than generations before. Changes in American culture have made religious standards harder to deal with in day-to-day life for young people spending more time without a spouse. Some have decided that the cost of compliance with religious standards isn’t worth paying.

In adults under 35 who’ve never been married, frequent religious attendees decreased from 30 percent in the early 1990s to under 20 percent in modern times. There hasn’t been any change in religiosity in unmarried adults since 2008. However, increasingly delayed marriage has a significant effect on sexual frequency among American adults. Perhaps young adults are straying away from premarital sex because they’re tired of trying to fit in with everyone else. They see that premarital sex isn’t getting them anywhere, and it’s no longer worth it, so they decide to wait until they get married.

This change could also be a sign from God. He may have realized that young people were having sex before marriage more often, so He put it on their hearts to return to their roots. Whatever the reason is, God would be pleased to know that more young people are starting to practice what they preach and practice His Word.