Baby Boomers: The most sexed-up generation of them all

Cue orgasm sounds: Baby Boomers have more sexual partners – and very possibly more sex – than any other generation.

Despite all the hand-wringing over Gen Y’s ‘hookup culture’, and the ubiquity of dating apps like Tinder and Grindr, they trail both Boomers and early GenXers when it comes to quantity.

Boomers (those born in the 1950s and 60s) average 11 sexual partners as adults, according to a study of 33,000 people published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour.

Gen Xers, born in the late 1940s or 1970s averaged 10 partners, while Millienials (born in the 1980s and 1990s) averaged eight sexual partners.

It's all a far cry from the early part of last century: The so-called "Greatest Generation" (those born between roughly 1901 and 1924) slept with an average of three adult partners in their adult life, while the "Silent Generation" (those born from the mid-1920s to the mid-1940s) slept with a meagre average of about two partners each.

You can see why grandma looked grim.

But the free-and-easy 60s can't take all the credit (or blame) for the kind of braggy/kind-of-blush-making Boomer stats, according to report author Jean Twenge.

"Although Millennials are more tolerant of pre-marital sexual behaviour, they're not taking that as license to sleep around," she said.

"Millennials are more accepting of premarital sex than any previous generation, yet have had fewer sexual partners than GenX'ers. This is consistent with their image as a tolerant, individualistic generation accepting others' choices and making their own.

"The changes have caused a large generation gap in both attitudes toward premarital sex and number of sexual partners.

And she believes the decrease in the number of partners could be due to the fact that millennials are more safety-conscious than earlier generations, and have greater awareness about HIV and other STIs - not that they're hung up on the morality of premarital sex.

"Millennials have never known a world where premarital sex was a taboo," she said.

Twenge said the change in attitude was generation-specific, evolving as younger, more accepting generations replaced older ones.

The study found tolerance for homosexuality has quadrupled since 1973 to 44 per cent, but still remains the minority. This could be because people who grew up when it was a taboo may still view it in the same way.

But if your kids think they're breaking new ground with the hookup culture, slap 'em down. Turns out we did it first.