What percentage of men give oral sex
Executive summary
Most reputable U.S. surveys put the share of men who have ever given oral sex to a partner in the neighborhood of roughly four‑fifths: studies and reviews report figures between about 75% and 87% depending on the sample, question wording and timeframe, while measures of recent activity and partner gender show wider variation [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What the headline numbers say: a cluster around 80–87%
Large, nationally oriented data sources consistently find that a large majority of men report having performed oral sex at least once: a 2009–10 NHANES‑based analysis reported 85.4% of men had ever performed oral sex [2], the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) and related summaries have cited roughly 83–87% for men in the 15–44 age window [4] [5], and a recent compiled popular piece cites 87.4% of men aged 15–44 reporting oral sex in their lives [3]. These figures are convergent enough to support the central claim: most men report ever giving oral sex.
2. Important distinctions: “ever” vs. “recent,” and who the partner was
“Ever” giving oral sex is different from giving it recently or giving it to a same‑gender partner; older probability samples found 75% of men had performed oral sex at some point but far fewer had done so in the last month (only about 10% had done so six or more times in the prior month in one study) [1]. Statista summaries and specialty surveys break out giving oral sex to male partners specifically and show much lower percentages for lifetime same‑gender oral sex — results that vary strongly by age cohort and by whether the question asks about any lifetime partner versus opposite‑sex partners only [6] [7].
3. Frequency: many say they give it regularly, but estimates differ by study
Beyond “ever,” frequency estimates vary: one synthesis reports heterosexual Americans give oral sex an average of about 5.14 times per month and gay men give it about 5.37 times per month, while relationship status and age shift those averages [3]. Yet earlier national work showed the majority of men who ever performed oral sex had not done so in the previous four weeks, underlining that averages mask a broad spread from frequent practice to long gaps [1].
4. Why numbers diverge: method, age, identity and social desirability
Differences across reports stem from target age ranges, question wording (ever vs. last year/last month; giving vs. receiving; partner gender), survey year and social‑desirability bias; older samples reported lower lifetime prevalence than 2000s–2010s national surveys, and convenience samples or media polls produce distinct results that can skew perceptions [1] [4] [3]. Commercial or advocacy sites compiling or conducting surveys may prioritize headline‑friendly figures and sometimes mix datasets with different definitions, producing apparent contradictions [3] [8].
5. What remains unclear in available reporting
The provided sources allow confident statements about U.S. adults in certain age brackets and about lifetime prevalence versus recent frequency, but they do not provide a single definitive current global percentage for “men who give oral sex” across all ages, cultures and sexual identities; nor can these sources fully correct for underreporting or changing social norms since the most recent surveys cited [2] [4] [3].
6. Bottom line for interpretation
For readers synthesizing the evidence: a clear, reproducible finding is that roughly 8 out of 10 men in large U.S. surveys report ever having given oral sex, with important caveats — the figure depends on how the question is asked, the timeframe used, partner gender and cohort effects, and frequency measures show substantial within‑group variation [2] [4] [1] [3].