Help Others Restore Integrity Colossal Man and Jeff discussing pornography statistics.
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Get the Latest Pornography Statistics

Last Updated: January 12, 2024

German poet Heinrich Heine said you cannot feed the hungry on statistics. Well-researched stats can only illuminate the problem, not solve it.

But for many, the problem of pornography in our modern culture still needs a spotlight. What do some of the latest stats tell us about this sexual-media giant?

Covenant Eyes has released a new conglomeration of pornography statistics based on some of the best research. Here are the highlights…

Porn is big business.

In the early 2000s, global porn revenues were estimated at $20 billion, with $10 billion coming from US consumers.

However, by 2011 both global and U.S. porn revenues had been reduced by 50%, due in large part to the amount of free pornography available online. It is estimated that 80-90% of Internet porn users only access free online material.

As far as online pornography is concerned, from 2001 to 2007, the Internet porn industry went from a $1-billion-a-year industry to $3-billion-a-year in the US alone.

Porn is a dangerous business.

On average, 17% of performers use condoms in heterosexual porn films. 66% of porn performers have herpes, and 7% of porn performers have HIV.

Ex-porn star Tanya Burleson says men and women in pornography do drugs because “they can’t deal with the way they’re being treated” in the industry. A 2012 survey of porn actresses demonstrated 79% of porn stars have used marijuana, 50% have used ecstasy, 44% have used cocaine, and 39% have used hallucinogens.

When hundreds of scenes were analyzed from the 50 top-selling adult films, 88% of scenes contained acts of physical aggression, and 49% of scenes contained verbal aggression.

All types of people look at Internet porn.

Paul Fishbein, founder of Adult Video News, is right when he says, “Porn doesn’t have a demographic—it goes across all demographics.” After an analysis of 400 million web searches, researchers concluded that 1 in 8 of all searches online is for erotic content.

Who is more likely to seek out pornography online? According to data taken from Internet users who took part in the General Social Survey:

  • Men are 543% more likely to look at porn than females.
  • Those who are politically more liberal are 19% more likely to look at porn.
  • Those who have ever committed adultery are 218% more likely to look at porn.
  • Those who have ever engaged in paid sex are 270% more likely to look at porn.
  • Those who are happily married are 61% less likely to look at porn.
  • Those with teen children at home are 45% less likely to look at porn.
  • Regular church attenders are 26% less likely to look at porn than non-attenders, but those self-identified as “fundamentalists” are 91% more likely to look at porn.

Mobile porn is increasing in popularity.

After an analysis of more than one million hits to Google’s mobile search sites, more than 1 in 5 searches are for pornography on mobile devices.

By 2015, mobile adult content and services are expected to reach $2.8 billion, mobile adult subscriptions will reach nearly $1 billion, and mobile adult video on tablets will triple worldwide.

It is common for teens to see porn.

In a 2010 national survey, over a quarter of 16- to 17-year-olds said they were exposed to nudity online when they did not want to see it. In addition, 20% of 16-year-olds and 30% of 17-year-olds have received a “sext” (a sexually explicit text message).

More than 7 out of 10 teens hide their online behavior from their parents in some way.

35% of boys say they have viewed pornographic videos “too many times to count.”

More than half of boys and nearly a third of girls see their first pornographic images before they turn 13. In a survey of hundreds of college students, 93% of boys and 62% of girls said they were exposed to pornography before they turned 18. In the same survey, 83% of boys and 57% of girls said they had seen images of group sex online.

It is common for young adults to use porn.

About 64-68% of young adult men and about 18% of women use porn at least once every week. Another 17% of men and another 30% of women use porn 1-2 times per month.

Two-thirds of college-age men and half of college-age women say viewing porn is an acceptable way to express one’s sexuality.

Porn is destroying families.

The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers reports that 56% of divorce cases involve one party having “an obsessive interest in pornographic websites.”

According to numerous studies, prolonged exposure to pornography leads to:

  • diminished trust between intimate couples
  • the belief that promiscuity is the natural state
  • cynicism about love or the need for affection between sexual partners
  • the belief that marriage is sexually confining
  • a lack of attraction to family and child-raising

Continue to educate yourself about this topic. See our comprehensive list of statistics.

  1. King of the flies

    But porn is pretty much free online. Also, gf and wives are just smarter versions of sex workers anyway, because either way you’ll have to pay. Trust me, her “love” is free nor unconditional.

  2. T

    dear Luke Gilkerson, I don’t know. I don’t know why I’m writing this and why I really feel compelled to express it, as it is a bit of a meaningless comment, but I must to.
    I’ve been tremendously addicted to porn for about 17 years an I’m not completely clear now still. I’m improving a lot though and it’s awesome beacuse when I manage to stay 7 days without it feels great and I feel power into myself and I’m happy i see my gowth in real daily life facts.
    17 years are about more than half of my life. I’ve been addicted to the smallest bone of my body, I’ve been rottened all the way to feel my own blood itch few millimetres under my skin and ( I swear it’s true). I’ve been un-training my sense of desire so much by pushing too many glimpse-compelling images to be unable to stand still amidst a crowd getting off a train crowded by fortune of a significant number of good looking women. I’ve been carving real warm love out of my heart with such efficiency to make enough space for a deep black flame of anxiousness and angst in the middle of my chest and i eventually experience the death of my own soul for more than three days in a row (lately i’ve been told it was an extreme experience of detachement).
    Yet, under the power of that hurricane i managed to stand still, and when the eye of the cyclone had had enough of steping on my trashed body I managed to stood up and ran away. I renewed myself, oh well: I started it!! renewing oneself it’s a never ending process! it start again every day because the day after i’ìll forget and i’ll have to remember again! and that’s the greatness of it.I must not be saved forever, not be safe for good, becasue i will not want to be anymore, do you understand this? what am I saying? I’m saying porn i’ts ok as making error is vital for us if it makes us remember that that’s not the road.
    You do a sensible job: you offer a technical help for people with an obsession. that’ helpfull too. but let me point at something for you to see something: a porn addicted person doesn’t have a problem with porn, he’s got a problem with his own mind (because he’s trapped between his confusing desires and society rules), a problem of self esteem (because he/she thinks he’ll never manage to speak out to the gilr /boy he/she likes, especially for teens), he’s got a problem with fear (because he is not able to stand up ihn front of all his/her mates and school colleagues saying he/she doens’t feel confortable with such a thing and ends up being trapped), he’got a problem with lazyness, courage, patience adn capability to stand and understand that life is full of boredom too; he’s got a problem with emptynes and lonelines, with frienship.
    what am I saying Luke Gilkerson? I’m saying that when the eye of the cyclone was far and I felt safe enough to stop running like crazy, I managed to look back to where i had been and I saw that pornography wasn’t the problem but the “solution”.I started to use pornography to cover a need that wasn’t being fulfilled, then i continued using pornography to silent the pain of that answer that had never come when i needed it, to forget that phrase I had alwas wanted to say but never had the courage, I used it when i needed to feel satified with myself when my achievements did not. and eventually, I used it becasue i could not do without anymore.
    Pronography HAS BECOME a problem, but it wasn’t THE roblem.

    Do you want to stop with pornography? the path aren’t many: find out what triggers it, then search professional help for that thing whatever it may be. or the contrary: ask for professional help in order to help you out finding what triggers the need for porn. A church might not be the right place where to look for help unless it is lead by a professionist. Professionism and humanity do the difference when it comes to these stuffs , not christian or non-christian.

    • Monica Elaine

      Professionism?!? Seriously?!? Come on, people! There’s predictive text, spell check, and Google for Pete’s sake!

  3. I really like looking through an article that will make men and women think.

    Also, thanks for allowing for me to comment!

  4. Jon

    This is interesting. What is the source of the 91% more likely to do porn if you call yourself fundamentalist?

    • Monica Elaine

      Exactly, thank you for your comment, Jon…that had me wondering as well. Hahaaahahaaa!

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