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. 2026 Jan 5;16(1):215.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-23483-0.

Associations of Sexual Desire with Demographic and Relationship Variables

Affiliations

Associations of Sexual Desire with Demographic and Relationship Variables

Toivo Aavik et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Sexual desire plays an important role in human well-being and relational dynamics, yet its demographic and relational predictors remain insufficiently understood. Leveraging a uniquely large and representative sample (N = 67,334) from the Estonian Biobank, we examined how gender, age, sexual orientation, relationship status, recent childbirth, number of children, relationship satisfaction, education, and occupation relate to self-reported sexual desire. Men reported substantially higher desire than women (η² = 0.18), a difference that persisted across most ages and demographic groups. Sexual desire declined with age, more steeply for women, and was positively associated with bisexual and pansexual orientation, recent childbirth, and relationship satisfaction. Multivariate models explained 28.3% of the variance in sexual desire, with gender and age emerging as the strongest predictors. Notably, gender moderated several associations, including those with age, parenthood, and relationship satisfaction. These findings provide the most comprehensive account to date of how basic demographic and relational variables jointly shape sexual desire in the general population, offering a robust foundation for theory development and applied sexual health research.

Keywords: Demographic predictors; Estonian biobank; Gender differences; Relationship satisfaction; Sexual desire; Sexual orientation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Interaction of gender with other demographic variables for desire1. Note. Education: Basic = Basic education, Secondary = Secondary education, Bachelor’s = Bachelor’s degree, Master’s or PhD = Master’s or Doctoral degree; Job category: Manager = Senior official or manager, Top specialist = Top-level specialist, Mid specialist = Mid-level specialist, Office = Office or customer service worker, Sales = Sales worker, Craftsman = Skilled worker or craftsman, Machine driver = Machine operator or vehicle driver, Elementary = Elementary worker, Military = Professional military personnel. ¹For each panel, Desire(z) represents the residualized variable desire (controlled for those demographic variables not shown in this particular panel).

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