Porn Industry Facts and Statistics

Introduction

The porn industry is huge and the ill effects that it has created are also significantly huge. Many studies conducted by psychologists around the world have seen drastic effects of porn on the mental and physical conditions of people and it has made this industry a concerning point of the topic that needs to be addressed and solved. Youth are most prone to videos related to porn and it’s resulting in devasting issues in their lives along with similar effects on adults.

 Overview of the porn industry

1. From popular porn sites offering free premium subscriptions to those isolated indoors to sites like BuzzFeed normalizing porn with viral videos, it feels like porn is taking over.
2. Porn is plastered all over social media sites like Instagram, and it’s too easy to see on Twitter considering the Twitterverse is home to an estimated 10+ million porn accounts.
3. But just because there’s a ton of porn that’s accessible and available doesn’t guarantee that people, especially underage kids, are stumbling upon it.
4. According to a nationally representative survey, 84.4% of 14 to 18-year-old males and 57% of 14 t0 18-year-old females have viewed pornography.
5. That’s a lot of underage exposure to an industry that claims to be “adult” entertainment.
6. According to a recent report by the BBFC, 75% of parents believed their child had never encountered porn, but of those children, 53% reported that they had in fact seen porn.
7. According to research by the NSPCC, of the adolescents who had been exposed to porn, 28% were first exposed by accident, 19% were unexpectedly shown pornography by someone else, and only 19% searched for it intentionally
8. Despite the fact that porn can be wildly unrealistic and often glorifies violence, sexism, or racism.
9. One recent survey found that over half of boys (53%) and over a third of girls (39%) reported believing that pornography was a realistic depiction of sex.
10. A Swedish study of 18-year-old males found that frequent consumers of pornography were significantly more likely to have sold and bought sex than other boys of the same age.
11. A 2015 meta-analysis of 22 studies from seven countries found that internationally the consumption of pornography was significantly associated with increases in sexual aggression, both verbally and physically among males and females alike.
12. A UK survey found that 44% of males aged 11–16 who consumed pornography reported that online pornography gave them ideas about the type of sex they wanted to try.
13. Consistent with other research on the topic, one study showed that almost half (46.9%) of those surveyed said their porn tastes/preferences escalated to the point of them being interested in more extreme pornography that had previously disinterested or even disgusted them.
14. As of April 2021, according to an analysis of the most trafficked websites worldwide, 2 porn sites are in the top 10 most visited sites, with a third porn site coming in at 13th (Xvideos, Xnxx, and Pornhub at 7th, 9th, and 13th respectively).
15. According to data from the SEMrush Traffic Analytics tool, as of May 2021 porn sites received more website traffic in the U.S. than Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, Pinterest, and LinkedIn combined.
16. “Teen” is one of the most consistently popular porn themes, and research shows that this theme is 1) becoming increasingly popular, and 2) includes the portrayal of underage characters.
17. One review of 20 studies on the topic found that teen pornography consumption negatively impacts adolescents’ self-esteem and mental health.
18. In 2018, 45 million images of child sexual abuse material (sometimes referred to as “child porn”) were reported, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 
19. In 2019, that number jumped to 69.1 million.
20. According to a 2020 survey, approximately 45% of teens who consumed porn did so in part to learn about sex.
21. The Internet Watch Foundation recently reported that during 2020, approximately 44% of all child sexual abuse material reported to the IWF involved self-generated material. That’s a 16% increase from 2019 when only a third of reports involved self-generated imagery.
22. Of domestic minor trafficking victims who had been forced into porn production, the average age they began being filmed was 12.8 years old.
23. Porn is a global, estimated $97 billion industry, with about $12 billion of that coming from the U.S.
24. In 2019 alone, the equivalent of nearly 6,650 centuries of porn was consumed on one of the world’s largest porn sites.
25. 1 out of every 8 porn titles shown to first-time users on porn home pages describe acts of sexual violence.
26. According to Pornhub’s analytics, “Lesbian” was the most searched-for porn term on the site in 2018. In 2019, it was “Japanese.”
27. Survey results show that one in four 18 to 24-year-olds (24.5%) listed pornography as the most helpful source to learn how to have sex.
28. The reality is that porn’s harmful effects are no longer a mystery, and new issues porn fuels or causes are regularly being discovered.
29. Science and research have been out for years now, and thousands of people, including porn performers themselves, have spoken out on how porn has negatively impacted their lives and relationships.
30. 1 in 5 mobile searches is for pornography.
31. 90% of teens and 96% of young adults are either encouraging, accepting, or neutral when they talk about porn with their friends.
32. Just 55% of adults 25 and older believe porn is wrong.
33. Teens and young adults 13-24 believe not recycling is worse than viewing pornography.
34. Only 43% of teens believe porn is bad for society, compared to 31% of young adults 18-24, 51% of Millennials, 44% of Gen-Xers, and 59% of Boomers.
35. Pornography is very prevalent in our society, and porn addiction affects about 5-8% of adults.
36. People addicted to porn spend at least 11 to 12 hours per week viewing porn.
37. Most people who have a porn addiction say that porn hurts their personal relationships.
38. Many conditions co-occur with porn addiction, including anxiety, depression, sex addiction, social anxiety, and substance use disorders.
39. The prognosis for porn addiction is good with cognitive behavioral therapy and counseling.
40. Around 35% of all internet downloads are pornographic.
41. 40 million US adults regularly visit internet pornography websites.
42. 10% of US adults admit to having an addiction to internet pornography.
43. 17% of all women struggle with porn addiction.
44. 20% of men and 13% of women admit to accessing porn while at work.
45. 70% of women admit to keeping their cyber activities secret.
46. 1 of 3 visitors of all adult websites is a woman.
47. Women favor chat rooms 2x more than men.
48. The pornography industry is enormous, raking in an estimated $16.9 billion each year in the United States alone.
49. As many as 28% of people who use computers at work visit sexual web pages while at their workplace. Viewing pornography at work runs the risk of getting fired for this habit.
50. People who struggle with porn addiction also frequently have financial problems as a result of their porn use.

A 2018 study revealed: 

1. Around 15% are sending them.
2. 57% of teens search out porn at least monthly.
3. Nearly 27% of teens receive sexts.
4. 51% of male students and 32% of female students first viewed porn before their teenage years.
5. The first exposure to pornography among men is 12 years old, on average.
6. 71% of teens hide online behavior from their parents.
7. $3,075.64 is spent on porn every second on the Internet.

Risk Associated and Dark Side of Pornography

1. 88% of scenes in porn films contain acts of physical aggression, and 49% of scenes contain verbal aggression.
2. 79% of porn performers have used marijuana, and 50% have used ecstasy.
3. A 2016 study on Canadian adolescents showed that 45.3% admitted to problems in erectile dysfunction.
4. One study found that people who view online pornography are two times more likely than their peers to have depression. This result shows a connection between porn and depression, but one cannot claim that porn causes depression.
5. Another study found that people who viewed pornography were more likely to be lonely than those who did not view porn.
6. Conditions that frequently co-occur with pornography addiction include: Depression, Anxiety, Social anxiety, Mood disorders, Sex addiction, Substance use disorders, Memory problems, Smoking and tobacco use, or Erectile dysfunction

Who is more exposed to pornography?

1. More of urban population than rural.
2. Have experienced an increase in higher than average household income.
3. Have a great density of young people (age 15-24).
4. Have a higher proportion of people with undergraduate degrees.
5. Have higher measures of social capital (i.e. more people who donate blood, engage in volunteer activities, or participate in community projects).

Porn in the Church Stats

1. 1 in 5 youth pastors and 1 in 7 senior pastors use porn on a regular basis and currently struggling. That’s more than 50,000 U.S. church leaders.
2. 43% of senior pastors and youth pastors say they have struggled with pornography in the past.
3. 64% of Christian men and 15% of Christian women say they watch porn at least once a month.
4. Only 7% of pastors report their church has a ministry program for those struggling with porn.

Pornography and Marriage Stats

1. Diminished trust between intimate couples.
2. The belief is that promiscuity is the natural state.
3. Lack of attraction to family and child-raising.
4. A 2014 study found that compulsive pornography users “had greater impairments of sexual arousal and erectile difficulties in intimate relationships but not with sexually explicit materials.”
5. In 2013, Cosmopolitan magazine surveyed 68 top sex therapists in the United Kingdom. Of them, 86% felt that porn hurt their relationships and 90% had seen an increase in relationship troubles due to porn use.
6. Most sex therapists also said that porn increases men’s expectations of sex with their partner, while porn has a negative effect on women’s sexual confidence
7. A study from 2012 found that men’s porn use can lower the self-esteem of their wives and girlfriends.
8. About 56% of divorce proceedings cite an “obsessive interest” in pornographic websites. Conversely, other studies show that women who use porn themselves tend to have higher quality sex.

Pornography and future

1. It’s projected that virtual reality (VR) porn should be a $1 billion business by the year 2025.
2. That’s third behind an expected $1.4 billion virtual reality video game market and $1.23 billion VR NFL-related content.
3. Pornographers are hoping VR porn will boost porn website revenues that have been mostly stagnant from 2010 to 2015.
4. From 2010 to 2015, adult content increased roughly 0.3% to $3.3 billion.

 Conclusion:

The above stats confirm the dark reality of porn and its effects on people. Not all technological advancements (like VR Porn) lead to a happy and satisfying life. Addicts would need to regulate their actions or seek therapy to avoid health problems and achieve a positive mental state.