Casual sex now ‘justifiable’, say one third of baby boomers

A One-night stand, fling, tryst, or even a dalliance: casual sex is often seen as the preserve of the young.

Yet nearly a third of baby boomers approve of no-strings-attached sex, a study has found.

Data from the Policy Institute at King’s College London (KCL) found that UK attitudes to casual sex had changed not just over time but also between the generations, with researchers concluding that, when it comes to casual intimacy, “the social norm has changed, and the boomers have followed that”.

The researchers collated data from an international survey conducted across the past four decades and found that in 2009, 8 per cent of baby boomers (who are born between 1946 and 1964) found casual sex was “justifiable”. But by 2022 this had risen to 30 per cent.

However, younger cohorts such as Gen Z, which includes anyone born between 1997 and 2012, and millennials, who are born between 1981 and 1996, are far more likely to hold this view at 67 per cent and 55 per cent respectively.

Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, said: “It’s easy to lose sight of just how much more liberal the UK has [become], and how liberal we are relative to many other nations.

“What were once pressing moral concerns – things like homosexuality, divorce and casual sex – have become simple facts of life for much of the public, and we now rank as one of the most accepting countries internationally.”