What percentage of women have given oral sex to their male partners in the last year?
Executive summary
Available surveys show that most U.S. women report ever having performed oral sex, but the sources provided do not supply a single, recent national percentage for women who gave oral sex to male partners specifically in the past year; instead the data are age‑specific and inconsistent across outlets, so any “overall past‑year” number must be presented as an estimate with clear caveats (lifetime prevalence ~82–93% in some national studies, while past‑year rates are much lower in age‑stratified reports) [1] [2] [3].
1. What the best national surveys actually say about “ever” versus “past year”
Large national surveys and reviews commonly report lifetime prevalence — for example, the National Survey of Family Growth found roughly 82% of women had had oral sex with an opposite‑sex partner at some point in their lives, a figure cited by the International Society for Sexual Medicine summarizing NSFG results [1]; Statista’s charting of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion likewise documents high lifetime shares by age group [2]. These lifetime figures are not the same as “in the last year,” and relying on them would overstate recent behavior if age and partnership status are not considered [2] [1].
2. Concrete past‑year data are fragmentary and strongly age‑dependent
The clearest past‑year numbers in the provided reporting are age‑specific: among mid‑teenagers, 22.4% of females aged 16–17 reported giving oral sex to another partner in the past year, a statistic explicitly published in a sexual‑behavior compilation [4]. Other sources note that older cohorts show lower past‑year activity — for example, a UK survey summarized by ISSM found only 19% of women aged 65+ had had oral sex in the past year — but that is not a U.S. national past‑year figure and mixes country and cohort differences [1]. The CDC report listed in the collection contains age‑stratified tables for 15–24 year olds and related analyses but the excerpts provided do not give a single all‑women past‑year percentage usable for 15–44 or the full adult population [5].
3. Reconciling disparate sources: reasonable bounds, not a definitive number
Given the material at hand, the defensible statement is that past‑year prevalence for “women giving oral sex to male partners” varies dramatically by age: teen rates (16–17) are about 22% [4], seniors report much lower annual activity (around 19% in one UK sample cited by ISSM) [1], and lifetime prevalence is very high (roughly 82% in NSFG summaries) [1]. Some compilations and non‑peer‑reviewed aggregators report roughly half of adults have performed oral sex (about 52% of women in one market data roundup), but these figures combine lifetime and recent measures and are of uneven provenance [6]. Therefore a precise nationwide past‑year percentage for all women cannot be extracted from the supplied sources; a plausible bounded claim might be that for most adult women the past‑year rate is likely well below lifetime prevalence and varies by age and relationship status, with teen and older‑adult extremes documented at ~20–25% in the fragments available [4] [1] [6].
4. Why journalists and aggregators diverge — and what to watch for
Commercial webpages and infographics often conflate lifetime, past‑year, and past‑month measures, producing seemingly precise percentages that mask different time windows and sampling frames [6] [7]. Academic and government data (NSFG, CDC) provide the most reliable age‑stratified estimates but the excerpts provided here do not include a single, recent “past‑year among all women” statistic; absent that, aggregators may lean on older studies or mixed samples that skew toward sensational or marketable numbers [2] [5] [6].
5. Bottom line and reporting limitation
The supplied reporting does not contain a single, authoritative percentage for all women who gave oral sex to male partners in the last year; available figures show lifetime rates around ~82% (NSFG summaries) and age‑specific past‑year rates near ~22% for 16–17 year‑olds and lower annual activity among older adults, so any overall past‑year estimate would require access to full, recent NSFG or CDC tables disaggregated by time‑frame and age [1] [4] [5]. Sources used: NSFG summary and ISSM synthesis [1], teenage past‑year stat [4], Statista lifetime breakdown [2], and several aggregators with mixed methodology [6] [7], and those sources’ differing scopes explain the inability to state a single definitive past‑year percentage from the material provided.