Among the findings of a sweeping federal government survey of American sexual behavior is one that may surprise those bewailing a permissive and eros-soaked popular culture: More than one-quarter of people interviewed in their late teens and early 20s had never had sex.

And the number was growing.

The latest round of the quaintly named National Survey of Family Growth found that among 15-to-24-year-olds, 29 percent of females and 27 percent of males reported no sexual contact with another person ever – up from the 22 percent of both sexes when the survey was last conducted in 2002.

‘The public’s general perception is that when it comes to young people and sex, the news is bad and likely to get worse,’ said Bill Albert, chief program officer of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, an advocacy organization in Washington.

The seventh and latest round of the survey, first done in 1973, provides a corrective to that view.

‘Many, many young people have been very receptive to the message of delaying sexual activity,’ Albert said. ‘There’s no doubt about it.’ He added that the nearly 40 percent reduction in teen pregnancy since the 1990s – which experts attribute to both increased condom use […]