Porn Statistics: 20 Key Facts on Trends & Impact

This is the most comprehensive meta-study on porn statistics ever made.

It is a complete mapping of the most objective and factually accurate statistics on pornographic use, prevalence, porn addiction, demographic differences, porno among youth, and much more.

The dataset has been aggregated from years of scientific studies of porn. We have collected survey data, data from case studies, mappings of porn prevalence, website statistics, and porn addiction data, and made all of this freely available.

This article will guide you through:

• How Many People Watch Porn?
• Men vs. women
• Growth in the percentage who report to have watched porn
• Age and porn use
• Why do people watch porn?
• Porn Addiction
• Effects of exposure to porn
• Effects on sexual satisfaction and body satisfaction
• What State Watches The Most Porn (State-By-State Comparison)
• How often do people watch porn?
• How much time do people spend when watching porn?
• How many porn videos are on the internet?
• Pornhub statistics
• Countries that watch the most porn
• Cost of Porn to Society
• Christianity and religion
• Sex trafficking and porn
• Other facts about the porn industry

Key Results

• General Statistics: 46 million US adults watch pornography online, and 75.8% of Americans have watched porn at some point.
• Exposure Among Youth: 93% of boys and 62% of girls are exposed to porn in some form before turning 18.
• Gender Differences: Men are four times more likely to have watched porn in the last month compared to women (44% of men vs. 11% of women).
• Involuntary Exposure: 42.3% of women who have seen porn did not look for it intentionally.
• Porn for Education: Nearly 40% of men and 21% of women have watched porn to learn about sex.
• Porn Addiction: 10% of Americans show signs of porn addiction, with more than 200,000 diagnosed as porn addicts.
• Frequency of Watching: 87% of men aged 18-35 watch porn weekly.
• Global Reach: More than 5.81 billion people visit porn sites globally each month.
• Video Consumption: 165 billion porn videos were watched in the past year globally.
• Age of First Exposure: The average child is exposed to porn at age 14.
• Reasons for Viewing: The top reasons for viewing porn include sexual excitement (69.3% of men) and curiosity about different sexual activities.
• Effects of Porn: Exposure to porn can lead to negative outcomes like sexual deviancy, sexual perpetration, distorted views of intimate relationships, and rape myth acceptance.
• Sexual Satisfaction: There is no significant relationship between porn consumption and sexual satisfaction or body satisfaction.
• State-by-State Consumption: Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida are the top porn-watching US states.
• Viewing Duration: 75% of people spend on average 24 minutes watching porn per week.
• Internet Usage: 35% of all internet downloads are porn-related, and 13% of all websites are porn-related.
• Pornhub Statistics: 98% of Pornhub videos feature a white female, and male actors are more likely to receive oral sex and achieve orgasm compared to women.
• Economic Impact: The porn industry is worth more than $100 billion, with significant individual and societal costs.
• Religious Views: Various Christian denominations officially oppose pornography.
• Sex Trafficking: There is a close relationship between sex trafficking and the porn industry, especially in sex-chatting and camgirls.

How Many People Watch Porn?

• 46 million US adults watch porn frequently online.
• In the US, 32,497 people watch porn right now.
• 75.8% of Americans have at one point watched porn online.
• 1 in 4 Americans have watched porn online in the past month.
• 88-97.4% of American men report that they have at one point watched porn.
• 82.7% of American women report that they have at one point watched porn.
• Every month more than 5.81 billion people visit porn sites globally (statistics from just the top 3 sites).
• 165 billion porn videos were watched in the past year – more than 33 videos per adult in the world.
• 17.8 trillion hours of porn is consumed every year globally (equivalent to one person watching porn for more than 20,000 centuries non-stop).
• 84% of Americans have seen pornographic films that have been on TV or rented.
• 82% of Americans have seen pornographic magazines.
• 93% of boys are exposed to porn in some form before they turn 18.
• 62% of girls are exposed to porn in some form before they turn 18.

Men vs. women

• Men are four times more likely to have watched porn in the last month compared to women (44% of men vs. 11% of women).
• 42.3% of women who have seen porn did not look for it intentionally (meaning they were exposed without wanting to).
• Only 16.8% of women have watched porn for the sexual excitement.
• Women are much more likely than men to read written porn, or listen to erotica.
• Women are much more likely to visit porn chat rooms, compared to men.
• 1 out of every 3 visitors to porn sites are women.
• The average man watched porn for the first time at a younger age (14.3 years old) compared to women (14.8).
• 65% of men report to watch porn at least once per week, compared to just 18% of women.
• 70% of women who watch porn have never told anyone.
• 20% of men report that they have watched porn at work, compared to just 13% of women.
• Women who watch porn self-report to have better sex.

Growth in the percentage who report to have watched porn

• Today, more than 75.8% have seen porn in the US. In 1950 only 8% reported to have seen porno.

The question is if this has always been the case. As porn has become more accessible we have also seen an increase in the percentage of the population that has been exposed to porn.

The decline among the younger generation – a downward trend

The finding indicates that there is less interest in porn in the general population compared to previous centuries.

This is also obvious from looking at Ngrams (relative word frequency in writings) of the word “porno”.

We also see this trend in the search interest over time (search interest available for the past 10 years).

Age and porn use

• 93.2% of young boys are exposed to porn before they turn 18.
• 62.1% of young girls are exposed to porn before they turn 18.

From the study, here is the breakdown of when boys and girls are first exposed to porn.

The average child is exposed to porn at age 14.

Why do people watch porn?

When asked why people have watched porn the answers were the following:

Most noticeably:

• 69.3% of men report to watch porn for sexual excitement.
• 42.3% of women report that they watched porn without it being on purpose (involuntary exposure).
• 1 in 3 men, and 1 in 5 women have watched porn due to peer pressure (because friends wanted to watch it).
• Almost 40% of men watched porn to learn about sex, while 21% of women did the same.

Porn Addiction

• 10% of Americans report to have a problematic relationship with porn (similar to signs of porn addiction)
• More than 200,000 Americans are diagnosed porn addicts.
• Sex addiction often leads to excessive porn use, and 12 million Americans suffer from this addiction.
• Porn addiction is often accompanied by other addictions or mental health issues.
• Porn addiction is referred to in science as Problematic Pornography Use (PPU).
• Some estimates show that between 5 to 8% of the adult American population is addicted to pornography.
• Around 18% of porn users report to have watched porn at work.

10 signs of porn addiction

1. You are not able to hold off from watching porn in a pre-determined time frame.
2. You experience cravings and feelings of wanting more.
3. You are lost about time and place.
4. You lose interest in sex and find porn more inviting.
5. You lose attraction to real-life partners.
6. You develop more demands in your sex life – and start projecting what you see.
7. Physical pain from masturbation.
8. You spend larger amounts of money on feeding your addiction.
9. You think of porn at inconvenient times.
10. You become more angry.

Treatments

• Psychotherapy
• Relationship counseling
• Medication
• Lifestyle changes

Effects of exposure to porn

Out of the 64 peer-reviewed scientific studies, we found that exposure to porn had statistically significant effects on four different negative outcomes.

The studies we examined looked at:

• Sexual Deviancy: non-normative sexual behaviors such as early age of first intercourse, and excessive or ritualistic masturbation.
• Sexual Perpetration: aggressive, sexually hostile, and violent behaviors.
• Intimate Relationships: perceptions of dominance, submission, courtship, sex role stereotyping, or viewing persons as sexual objects.
• Rape Myth: women cause rape, should resist or prevent it, and rapists are normal.

The overall finding is that exposure to porn produces substantially significant negative outcomes in different aspects of the person’s sexual life and understanding.

• People who frequently watch porn are 37% more likely to have sex for the first time at an early age
• People who frequently watch porn are 37% more likely to masturbate in excessive and/or ritualistic ways.
• People who frequently watch porn are 22% more likely to be more aggressive, hostile, and violent during sex.
• People who frequently watch porn are 24% more likely to perceive intimate relationships from a dominant-submissive perspective, sexual objectification, and stereotyping.
• People who frequently watch porn are 31% more likely to shift blame on rape victims.

Effects on sexual satisfaction and body satisfaction

In another meta-study, we used an aggregated 46,524 respondents answers on porn consumption and sexual satisfaction. We also looked at the relationship between porn consumption and body satisfaction from 12,427 respondents.

The results showed:

• There is no statistically significant relationship between porn consumption and how satisfied you are sexually.
• There is no statistically significant relationship between porn consumption and how satisfied you are with your body.

In other words… Porn consumption does not effect sexual satisfaction or satisfaction with a persons own body in any way.

What State Watches The Most Porn (State-By-State Comparison)

To find out which US states watch the most porn we used 4 different methods. Additionally, we made sure to collect the most up-to-date data with each of these methods. Currently, other state-by-state rankings use age-old data that is readily available in newer versions. Therefore, this is the most recent and up-to-date rankings of the US states where porn is most prevalent, and the state where porn is least prevalent.

The first step was listing the top 10 states and the lowest-ranking state by each method. This can be seen underneath:

What the dataset showed is that we can reliably determine the top 3 most porn-consuming US states and the 3 least porn-consuming US states.

Top 3 most porn-watching US States are Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida.

1. Louisiana
2. Mississippi
3. Florida
4. Nevada
5. Oklahoma
6. Arkansas
7. Indiana

The top 3 least porn-watching US states are Ohio, New Hampshire, and Delaware.

1. Ohio
2. New Hampshire
3. Delaware
4. Virginia
5. Colorado
6. Oregon
7. Minnesota
8. Michigan
9. Montana
10. Vermont

The more specific reasoning for why we chose to show all 10 for the lowest rankings, and the highest 7 for the top porn-consuming state rankings can be found in how we calculated the rankings from the meta-study.

We used the occurrences in each calculating method and made a system that also redacted points for any double placement (in both lowest and highest).

How often do people watch porn?

Some estimates reveal that 30% of the internet is dominated by porn. So, extrapolating from that, how much time and how often would people then be watching that 30% of the internet?

• 25% of people say that they watch porn “every few days”
• 64% of people say that they watch porn “at least once a week”
• 8% of people say that they watch porn “once a month or less”
• 20% of men, and 13% of women have watched porn at work – meaning they couldn’t wait to get home to watch it.
• 13% of all online searches are for porn.
• 87% of men between 18-35 report to watch porn weekly.

How much time do people spend when watching porn?

• 75% of people spend on average 24 minutes watching porn per week.
• 11.8% of people spend on average 118 minutes watching porn per week.

How much time do people spend per visit:

However, other men are typically more avid porn users. Additionally, there is a massive difference between single men and coupled men:

• Single guys report they average two hours a week (three weekly visits of 40 minutes each).
• Coupled men report that they average 34 minutes a week (1.7 weekly visits of 20 minutes).
• On average men watch porn between 5 and 17 minutes a day.

How many porn videos are on the internet?

• More than 55,000 gigabytes of porn are uploaded every minute.
• 17 of the top 100 most visited websites in the world are porn.
• Most porn sites average 200 TB of video data.
• It is estimated that 164 million unique porn videos are uploaded and published by all the porn sites in the world.
• The world has the equivalent amount of porn videos to if 1 in 8 couples made one video each.
• 13,000 adult videos are produced in public records annually (not accounting for amateur videos and productions). In the same timeframe, Hollywood makes around 500 movies.

What percentage of the internet is porn?

• 35% of all internet downloads are porn related.
• 13% of all websites are porn related.
• 98% of the internet is at maximum 3 link clicks away from a porn site.

Pornhub statistics

In another study, the research Center did we investigated Pornhub videos and the contents of that specific site. You can find all the statistics in our Pornhub statistics article.

Some of the quick facts from that article are:

• 98% of Pornhub videos feature a white female and only 16% feature women of other colors.
• Male porn actors are 3 times more likely to receive oral sex compared to women.
• Male porn actors are more than 7 times more likely to get an orgasm compared to women.
• 1 in 3 videos on Pornhub are violent.
• The 100 most popular videos have an average of 65.41 million views.
• 50% of Pornhub videos are incestuous (title or video content).
• The most popular video on pornhub has 230 million views and the least popular has a total of 40.1 million views.
• The average length of the top 100 most popular porn videos is 14 minutes and 8 seconds. The longest is 39 minutes and 50 seconds, and the shortest is 4 minutes and 33 seconds.

Countries that watch the most porn

• 60% of porn sites are hosted in the US, while the Netherlands hosts 26%.

The top 3 porn watching countries measured on how much time they spent is:

1. In the Philippines they spend on average 11 minutes and 31 seconds per porn site visit.
2. In Japan they spend on average 10 minutes and 3 seconds per porn site visit.
3. In France they spend on average 10 minutes and 2 seconds per porn site visit.

The top 3 porn-watching countries measured as monthly searches on porn sites:

• Unites States with more than 68 M monthly searches.
• The United Kingdom with more than 16 M monthly searches.
• The Philippines with with more than 9M monthly searches.

Cost of Porn to Society

It is estimated that the porn industry is worth more than $100 billion. But this does not account for all the personal and health costs associated with the production of the +$100 billion industry.

However, it does bring individual costs for people purchasing porn – approximately $3,000 is spent every second on porn.

It is impossible to account for the actual economic costs, but a few studies suggest individual and societal costs that are non-quantifiable:

• Sexual stereotypes gets reinforced.
• Form and reinforcing unhealthy and sexist views on women.
• Condones violence against women.
• Higher rates on sexual dysfunction in men.
• Increase in sexual risk-taking.
• Lower self-esteem.
• Porn addiction.
• Increased marriage failure rate.

Christianity and religion

• Christians base their views on pornography “the Expounding of the Law”, which is in Matthew 5:27–28.
  • Catholics use the same, Matthew 5:27–28, to argue for why porn is banned in their religion.
• Protestantism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism all officially oppose pornography – however, most practitioners have a more sectarian view on the matter.

Sex trafficking and porn

Sex trafficking and porn are often closely related as adult stars have been known to be sex trafficked. That is especially prevalent in sex chatting and among camgirls. All this data can be found in our sex trafficking statistics.

Other facts about the porn industry

• The porn industry is one of the most profitable industries in the world.
• The porn industry also makes more money than NFL, NBA and MLB combined OR more than NBC, CBS, and ABC combined.
• North Korea has the death penalty for watching porn.
• Male porn stars on average make 3 times more money doing gay porn.
• Men focus more on the porn-stars faces than any other body part (butt, breasts, legs, etc.).
• “Sex” is the fourth most search keyword on google, with “porn” being number 6.
• The online interest in “Teen Porn” has tripled in the recent 8 years.
• The US is the largest producer of hardcore pornographics.
• There is a significant positive correlation between narcissism and porn consumption.
• 1 in 6 people have used a public WiFi to watch porn.
• 57% of Americans does not find porn morally acceptable.

References