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1% of people are asexual


Amelia107

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According to my research, out of billions of people all over the word only one percent of us are asexual! I'm pretty sure someone's discussed this before but I'd like to express my view.

I reckon there are quite possible lodes of people who are asexual. I think these people quite possibly don't know they are, pretend that they aren't or quite possibly not bothered. Some may be in sexual relationships that they simply carry on regardless while knowing that they are different but doesn't seek out any information because they have no idea it exists. Some are isolated and feel freakish.

So as for the one percent, I think it's incorrect.

Amelia x

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I think the estimation that 1% of people are asexual is not really backed up by too much scientific research, so that number is questionable anyway. But what makes you believe it's necessarily more than 1%? I know that asexual doesn't automatically mean not having sex, but given the fact that our species procreates through sex and it is therefore fun for most people to have sex, I don't think that there're too many asexuals around.

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Nothing_of_Value

The best available research has been done by Anthony Bogaert, a professor at Brock University. You can find his book here: http://tinyurl.com/atxza7j

From his studies he has shown that it is not unreasonable to believe that 1% of the population is Asexual; if you were to extrapolate his regional studies to a global scale you would end up with 60 million asexuals! That's twice the population of Canada.

He also cites research that shows that LGBTQ individuals represent less than 5% of the global population (again extrapolating but there is more research in that area than research dealing with Asexuality). In short, 1% is not an unreasonable number.

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Neither Bogaert nor anyone else can say how many people are asexual. Considering only AVEN members, there are a number of us who were married/partnered and had children, so we've unintentionally "passed" as sexuals. I'd guess that many people will discover that they are asexual as the years go on, after thinking they were just weird or somehow messed up. Likewise, we can't say how many people are homosexual, or bisexual, or any other orientation. People don't wear labels even if they are aware of what those labels could be.

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I've recently had a long talk about AVEN and asexuality with someone (he's a social pedagogue who used to work as a therapist, so not exactly totally naive about the spectrum of variance in people's lives ;)), and he was flabbergasted about that 1% statistic. He said that's about the number he'd expect of repulsed non-libidoists who remain virgins all their life, but would have thought that the simply "no sexual attraction/desire for partnered sex" definition would probably fit closer to around 20% of all people, in his opinion. :huh:

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I've recently had a long talk about AVEN and asexuality with someone (he's a social pedagogue who used to work as a therapist, so not exactly totally naive about the spectrum of variance in people's lives ;)), and he was flabbergasted about that 1% statistic. He said that's about the number he'd expect of repulsed non-libidoists who remain virgins all their life, but would have thought that the simply "no sexual attraction/desire for partnered sex" definition would probably fit closer to around 20% of all people, in his opinion. :huh:

I'm not really surprised. Therapy's about the only place where people can feel OK in admitting how they really feel.

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Yeah, or you just feel ok with it because your ok with yourself and then you don't mind how others react. If anyone react negativly to that, they have an issue, not me. That's how I think about it.

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I'm surprised by how many members of this website there are. Since it seems you can go about your life and never meet anyone who's asexual (and not just because they're not "out" - they're almost all sexual), and never even hear anyone mention asexuality, this website seems to have a lot of members!

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I still wonder about that 1% sometimes. That means, out of every hundred people, there's one ace. In and around my city, there's over 168,000 people. That should equate to 1,680 aces near me. Yet there is maybe 4, including myself, who self identify and have an online presence. Even accounting for those who've yet to self-identify and/or do not wish to/are unable to access the internet, there should still be a lot more aces active in my area.

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I think a lot of woman (mostly, I estimate) have sex to keep their relationship/the man. I have heard it more than a couple of times.

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I think a lot of woman (mostly, I estimate) have sex to keep their relationship/the man. I have heard it more than a couple of times.

Totally agree with you there.

Amelia x

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I think a lot of woman (mostly, I estimate) have sex to keep their relationship/the man. I have heard it more than a couple of times.

Doesn't mean they're asexual though. They could just have lower sex drives.

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earlymorningechoes

It may be because I'm in college, but even my conservative/innocent friends talk more about sex than I would ever think possible.

I still wonder about that 1% sometimes. That means, out of every hundred people, there's one ace. In and around my city, there's over 168,000 people. That should equate to 1,680 aces near me. Yet there is maybe 4, including myself, who self identify and have an online presence. Even accounting for those who've yet to self-identify and/or do not wish to/are unable to access the internet, there should still be a lot more aces active in my area.

I agree with Qutenkuddly. I live in LA most of the time, with eleven million people in and around the city. That means there should be 110,000 aces around for me to find/hang out with. I definitely doubt that even 1% is small enough sometimes.

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But it's not necessarily likely that there's an even distribution of asexuals compared to sexuals. Nor is it necessarily likely that asexuals would tend to be clustered in certain areas, like the clustering of gays in urban areas where liberal attitudes prevail (New York, San Francisco, LA in the US). There are probably many asexuals "passing" in their lives because unlike sexuals who may have obvious couple-type relationships that are observably hetero or homo, how would you know know a person is asexual? If you saw them with a friend who's either same or opposite gender, they could be in a friendship or a relationship. We are "unidentifiable" when out in public.

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I think a lot of woman (mostly, I estimate) have sex to keep their relationship/the man. I have heard it more than a couple of times.

Doesn't mean they're asexual though. They could just have lower sex drives.

Could be true as well. Probably a mix of cases

And it is true Sally , we are unidentifiable. People always think im hetero.

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I think a lot of woman (mostly, I estimate) have sex to keep their relationship/the man. I have heard it more than a couple of times.

Doesn't mean they're asexual though. They could just have lower sex drives.

Could be true as well. Probably a mix of cases

And it is true Sally , we are unidentifiable. People always think im hetero.

The only person I've told I am asexual wouldn't take it seriously because I've been married and had a long relationship.

The only person besides my ex-partner, that is, who went through a long period of hurt and disbelief and is now a friend.

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Hmmm I think there are more people who are asexual than you think it might just be new thing for a lot of people, I mean its a pretty new idea to me. Plus I think the world is very sexual so perhaps there are a lot of people trying to be sexual when it doesn´t feel right and they don´t know asexuality is a thing??

I´m actually curious does anyone know how far back in history asexuality was mentioned or if it was mentioned at all? Or anything at all about the history of asexuality?

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I´m actually curious does anyone know how far back in history asexuality was mentioned or if it was mentioned at all? Or anything at all about the history of asexuality?

It could have been called all sorts of different things -- not necessarily asexuality -- so it would be hard to determine.

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I´m actually curious does anyone know how far back in history asexuality was mentioned or if it was mentioned at all? Or anything at all about the history of asexuality?

It could have been called all sorts of different things -- not necessarily asexuality -- so it would be hard to determine.

There is a little bit about Dr. Alfred Kinsey and his research back in the 40's/50's, on the AVENwiki site. I haven't read it for a while, but if memory serves me correctly he added an X to represent Aexuality, when putting together his Kinsey Scale Of Sexual Orientation. I'm not sure how to add links, but AVENwiki is easy to find and does contain some fascinating history on how we have "evolved" into Asexuals.

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I'd seen so many threads about the percentage of people who are asexual. I had always thought that it would be unreasonable to think that there are more than about 1-3% of the population asexual (and perhaps 2-7% of other non-heterosexuals). It just makes observational sense. But I'd never considered that there may be a lot of people who just go through the motions and don't know they're ace. I am more open to considering that possibility after reading this thread, but I still have serious reservation.

I think that the former therapist to which Mysticus refers may have an inaccurate assessment. Therapists are more likely to see people with issues or perceived issues. I think asexual people would be more likely to have an issue because a mixed relationship would be an issue, and I think the asexual person is more likely to take the rap in that situation. Or asexuality itself may often be a perceived issue. Perhaps more appropriately, lack of knowledge about asexuality is the actual issue that gets people into the office. In any regard, there is an excessive selection bias.

With the increased awareness of asexuality, I can't imagine that the vast majority of asexuals under 30 still don't know they're asexual. We don't see an extraordinarily high membership here on AVEN yet, which is certainly accessible to the vast majority of the anglophone world (except India). If 20% of people were asexual, I think AVEN membership would be bursting at the seams by now and/or there would be dozens more online asexual spaces.

I think that the therapist may get so many unaware asexuals in his office because they are people over 30, 40, or 50 who are much less likely to know of asexuality.

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There are countries where women are simply not allowed to have communication outside their families, or where websites are controlled by the government, due to fundamentalist religious attitudes or dictatorshipis. Plus the large percentage of the population in the US (and probably some European countries) which is aging and not looking at on-line fora or googling about sexual issues.

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sinisterporpoise

Boegaert's second study revealed 0.5% of the population. Whose numbers don't match Kinseys. There is, as far as I know, no resarch that has been done about the percentage of asexual people in the United states.

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Kitty Spoon Train

I still wonder about that 1% sometimes. That means, out of every hundred people, there's one ace. In and around my city, there's over 168,000 people. That should equate to 1,680 aces near me. Yet there is maybe 4, including myself, who self identify and have an online presence. Even accounting for those who've yet to self-identify and/or do not wish to/are unable to access the internet, there should still be a lot more aces active in my area.

I've often thought about this. I live in a fairly huge city (over four million), so there should be roughly 40,000 aces here. When I look at that number, is seems like it should have led to a very active ace community of sorts existing here by now.

But like others have said, when you break that down by age, and account for the many who aren't really aware of it because it isn't an issue for them (eg. Nonrepulsed and going through the motions or whatever and so never really focused on it, etc), it's not unusual that it's still a pretty obscure thing, I guess.

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Notte stellata

Boegaert's second study revealed 0.5% of the population. Whose numbers don't match Kinseys.

Kinsey's "X" isn't exactly the same as asexuality. His criterion leans more towards sexual behavior (I think "X" means no socio-sexual contact, but I read that from second-hand resource, so I'm not very sure). Among unmarried women, the percentage of group "X" was as high as something like 15%, but it was much lower among married people. The lowest percentage (probably among married men) was quite close to Bogaert's 1%.

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Janus the Fox

I still wonder about that 1% sometimes. That means, out of every hundred people, there's one ace. In and around my city, there's over 168,000 people. That should equate to 1,680 aces near me. Yet there is maybe 4, including myself, who self identify and have an online presence. Even accounting for those who've yet to self-identify and/or do not wish to/are unable to access the internet, there should still be a lot more aces active in my area.

I've often thought about this. I live in a fairly huge city (over four million), so there should be roughly 40,000 aces here. When I look at that number, is seems like it should have led to a very active ace community of sorts existing here by now.

But like others have said, when you break that down by age, and account for the many who aren't really aware of it because it isn't an issue for them (eg. Nonrepulsed and going through the motions or whatever and so never really focused on it, etc), it's not unusual that it's still a pretty obscure thing, I guess.

Yeah, there would be people that also have their sexualities as a total non-issue as their lives never would involve it. Negating any need to define themselves as aces etc.

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Given the incredibly loose (imo) definition of asexual that is used around here (which practically amounts to "if you say that you're asexual, then you are"), I'm willing to believe the 1% can apply.

In actual practice, though? I'm not really as willing to believe it.

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