The Top 5 Countries with the Highest Percentage of Women who are Sexually Active Before the Age of 20

  Country Percentage of Women
1 Denmark 90%
2 Iceland 88%
3 Finland/Norway 84%
4 United States/Germany 81%
5 Switzerland 76%
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  1. Substantial proportions of adolescent women in some countries begin having sex before they marry.
  2. Sexual intercourse at quite young ages is common in many countries, developed and developing alike. In Bangladesh and India, for example, many girls are married before their 18th birthday.
  3. According to the report, sexual intercourse at an early age and before marriage is much more prevalent now than it was a generation ago.
  4. The premarital sexual behavior of Asian, Middle Eastern and North African women is largely undocumented. In these regions, a young woman having sexual intercourse before marriage would challenge strongly held social and religious values, and national surveys typically do not ask questions on this topic. However, this makes it all the more likely that a woman who breaks the taboo against premarital sexual intercourse will feel compelled to seek an abortion if she becomes pregnant.
  5. Because of enormous variation in the social, cultural and economic factors determining when sexual intercourse and marriage are considered desirable or necessary for women, there are broad regional differences in the age at which girls start having intercourse
Tags: People, Top 5 Highest

Sources:  Alan Guttmacher Institute report: Sharing Responsibility Women, Society and Abortion Worldwide.

List Notes: List is for developed countries excluding the data for Great Britain which was considered a country in this report. If Great Britain were included it would take position 3 on this list.

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