Statistics on Porn & Sex Addiction

The following are various statistics on sexual addiction and its effects. There are many more statistics than what are reflected on this page, but we do not wish to list them here. As bleak and discouraging as some of these may seem, there IS hope for freedom from the grip of sexual addiction. Do you struggle with addictive behaviors? Contact us for help.

Another great place to find sex/porn industry statistics is http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html.

• "It is believed that 70% of women involved in pornography are survivors of incest or child sexual abuse." (Women of Substance, Inc., “Pornography Facts,” www.womenofsubstance.org/por.htm)

• The total porn industry revenues range from $4 - $10 billion in the United States alone. (National Research Council Report, 2002). Internet Filter Review estimates the U.S. sex industry at $12 billion annually.

• Annual worldwide pornography sales are $57 billion. (Internet Filter Review, “Pornography Statistics 2003”)
• Average age for first time contact with pornography is around 9 years old. Average age for seeking help is 30-35 years old. (Estherministries.org, 2002)

• 76% of all email is unsolicited, and 48% of it contains a pornographic message. (American Family Association, www.afa.net)

Video & Television

• Annual rentals and sales of adult videos and DVD's top $4 billion, and the industry produces over 11,000 titles each year - 20 times as many as Hollywood! (Source: Frammolino, Ralph & P.J. Huffstutter. "The Actress, the Producer, & Their Porn Revolution." Los Angeles Times Magazine. 1/6/2002)

• The average American adolescent will view nearly 14,000 sexual references per year on television. Nearly one third of all "family hour" shows contain sexual references... (Source: "Sexuality, Contraception, & the Media." American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Public Education. 1/2001)

• The Kaisser Family Foundation found in their biennial “Sex on TV” report that TV’s sexual content has grown from 56% of all shows in the 1997-98 TV season to 68% in the 1999-2000 season. Seventy-five percent of prime-time network shows included sexual content.

Sexual Addiction

• The National Council on Sexual Addiction Compulsivity estimated that 6%-8% of Americans are sex addicts, which is 18 million – 24 million people.
• 25 million Americans visit cyber-sex sites between 1-10 hours per week. Another 4.7 million in excess of 11 hours per week. (MSNBC/Stanford/Duquesne Study, Washington Times, 1/26/2000)

• Researchers at Stanford and Duquesne universities claim at least 200,000 Americans are hopelessly addicted to E-porn. (Source: Koerner, Brendan I. "A Lust for Profits." U.S. News online. 3/27/2000)

• One out of every 6 women, including Christians, struggles with an addiction to pornography. (Today’s Christian Woman, September/October 2003)

• “More than 80% of women who have this addiction take it offline,” says Marnie Ferree. “Women, far more than men, are likely to act out their behaviors in real life, such as having multiple partners, casual sex, or affairs.” (Today’s Christian Woman, September/October 2003)

• A survey by No-Porn.com revealed the following from 5750 respondents:

• An MSNBC/Stanford/Duquesne Study in 2000 found:
  • Men prefer visual erotica twice as much as women
  • Women favor chat rooms twice as much as men
  • Women had slightly lower rate of sexually compulsive Internet behavior
  • 70% keep their habit a secret

Christians & Porn

• Fifty-one percent (51%) of pastors say cyber-porn is a possible temptation. Thirty-seven percent (37%) say it is a current struggle. (Christianity Today, Leadership Survey, December 2001)

• Nearly eighteen percent (17.8%) of all “born again” Christian adults in America have visited a sexually oriented website. (Zogby survey conducted for Focus on the Family, 2000)

• Sixty-three percent (63%) of men attending “Men, Romance & Integrity Seminars” admit to struggling with porn in the past year. Two-thirds (66%) are in church leadership and 10% are pastors. (Pastor’s Family Bulletin, Focus on the Family, March 2000)

• One in seven calls to Focus on the Family’s Pastoral Care hotline is about Internet pornography. (Pastor’s Family Bulletin, Focus on the Family, March 2000)
• Forty-seven percent (47%) of Christians admit that pornography is a major problem in their homes. (Internet Filter Review, “Pornography Statistics 2003”)
• 1 in 5 born-again Christians believe that viewing magazines with nudity and sexually explicit pictures is morally acceptable. (Barna Research Group, “Morality Continues to Decay,” 11/3/2003)
• Thirty-six percent (36%) of Christians say co-habitation is morally acceptable, and 39% define sexual fantasies as morally acceptable. (Barna Research Group, “Morality Continues to Decay,” 11/3/2003)

Children & Pornography

• The U.S. Customs Service estimates that there are more than 100,000 websites offering child pornography – which is illegal, worldwide. (Red Herring Magazine, 1/18/02)
• Of the 3 million unique users under seventeen that visited adult sites in September of 2000, 21.2% of them were under the age of 14. (eStatNews, 1/9/01)
• More than 20,000 images of child pornography are posted on the Internet every week. (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 10/8/03)
• There has been a 345% increase in child pornography sites from 2/2001 – 7/2001. (N2H2 press release, 8/01)

• In 1998 the FBI opened up 700 cases dealing with online pedophilia, most for posting child pornography. By 2000 that figure quadrupled to 2,856 cases. (Source: The Web's Dark Secret. Newsweek. March 19, 2001)

• One in five children who use computer chat rooms have been approached over the Internet by pedophiles. (Detective Chief Superintendent Keith Akerman, Telegraph.co.uk January 2002)

• 26 popular children’s characters, such as Pokemon, My Little Pony, and Action Man, revealed thousands of links to porn sites. 30% were hard-core. (Envisional 2000)
• Pornographers disguise their sites (i.e. “stealth sites) with common brand names, including Disney, Barbie, ESPN, etc., to entrap children. (Cyveillance Study, March 1999)

• The Kaiser Family Foundation recently released results from a survey conducted with teenagers. Some of their findings included the following:

Internet Pornography

• Sex is the #1 searched for topic on the Internet (Dr. Robert Weiss, Sexual Recovery Institute, Washington Times, 1/26/2000)
• Nine out of 10 children (90%) aged between eight and 16 have viewed pornography on the Internet. In most cases, the sex sites were accessed unintentionally when a child, often in the process of doing homework, used a seemingly innocent sounding word to search for information or pictures. (London School of Economics, January 2002)
• 43% of children said they do not have rules about Internet use in their homes. (Time/CNN Poll, 2000)
• In April 2001, there were 22.9 million unique visitors to porn sites. (Neilsen/Net Ratings, Inc.)
• Estimates for the number of X-rated sites on the net range from 20,000 to 7 million. (CNET.com, “Sex on the Web,” April 28, 1999)
• 60% of all website visits are sexual in nature. (MSNBC Survey 2000)
• Over 28 million new pornographic web pages appeared in the month of July 2003 alone! (N2H2 Incorporated, 2004)
• The number of pornographic web pages now tops 260 million, a growth rate of nearly 20-fold since 1998. (N2H2 Incorporated, “N2H2 Reports Number of Pornographic Web Pages…” 2004)
• 70% of employees admit to viewing or sending adult-oriented personal email at work. (Source: NFO Worldwide)
• 62% of parents of teenagers are unaware that their children have accessed objectionable websites. (Source: Yankelovich Partners Study)
• Analysts from Forrester Research say that sex sites on the Web generate at least $1 billion a year in revenue. (Wall Street Meets Pornography, New York Times, 10/23/00)

Internet Porn Statistics
(Source: Familysafemedia.com/pornography_statistics.html)

Pornographic websites: 4.2 million (12% of total websites)
Pornographic pages: 372 million
Daily pornographic search engine requests: 68 million (25% of total search engine requests)
Daily pornographic emails: 2.5 billion (8% of total emails)
Average daily pornographic emails/user: 4.5 per internet user
Monthly Pornographic downloads (Peer-to-peer): 1.5 billion (35% of all downloads)
Daily Gnutella “child pornography” requests: 116 thousand
Websites offering illegal child pornography: 100 thousand
Sexual solicitations of youth made in chat rooms: 89%
Youths who received sexual solicitation: 20%
Worldwide visitors to pornographic web sites: 72 million annually

 E-mail this page
 Printer-friendly page