menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

How can Gen Z start a family when we can't even afford a relationship?

37 0
01.10.2026

Gen Z, the generation born between 1997 and 2012, is too broke to date, too anxious to approach people and too online to have sex. At least, that’s how they feel about it.

A new study of 18- to 29-year-olds from Playboy, the Kinsey Institute and contraceptive brand Julie explores all the potential reasons why Gen Z is having less sex, straight from the adults who are living through it. Even though nearly 80% of respondents report moderate to very high levels of sexual desire, about 29% of those surveyed hadn’t had sex in the past three months.

This is not solely a Gen Z issue, either. In 2025, the Institute for Family Studies found that Americans were having less sex each week than they were in 1990.

Spicy headlines about sex aside, there are some very real reasons to be worried. After all, the U.S. birth rate has been declining for years. Marriage rates have also been declining among young people.

But while conservatives have taken up this crusade to get people to have more babies, they have not done anything to improve the material conditions of our lives that would support either of these milestones.

Gen Z........

© USA TODAY