How many married men in the US use a condom, how does that compare with men who live with a partner or have never married, and what exactly does the survey behind the numbers ask? The figures here come from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), run by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, and from our own tabulation of its 2022 to 2023 public file for men.
The answer
Among married US men aged 15 to 49 who had sex in the past 12 months, 15.6% used a condom the last time they had sex, about 1 in 6.4 (our arithmetic). The estimate rests on 1,289 married men in the survey, and its 95% confidence interval runs from 13.0% to 18.3% (our arithmetic).
Marriage is the divide
The share changes most with marital status.
| Men aged 15 to 49 who had sex in the past 12 months | Men in the survey | Used a condom the last time |
|---|---|---|
| Married | 1,289 | 15.6% |
| Living with a partner, not married | 362 | 17.4% |
| Never married, not living with a partner | 963 | 52.2% |
| All men | 2,748 | 26.0% |
Married men and men living with a partner report similar shares. Men who have never married and do not live with a partner report condom use at last sex more than three times as often as married men (our arithmetic). This page reports which methods were used, not the reasons for choosing them.
The same age band as before
Earlier versions of this page covered men aged 15 to 44. In that band, 18.0% of married men who had sex in the past year used a condom the last time, about 1 in 5.6, from 1,064 men with a 95% confidence interval of 14.9% to 21.1% (our arithmetic). The headline uses 15 to 49 because the 2022 to 2023 file covers men of those ages.
How the numbers were made
The 2022 to 2023 public file has 4,371 men aged 15 to 49. This page uses the 2,748 who reported sexual intercourse with a female partner in the past 12 months. In this survey, sex means vaginal intercourse with a female partner.
The survey asks which methods were used the last time a man had sex in the past 12 months, with up to four mentions. A man counts here if any mention is a condom. It is a question about one occasion, the most recent, not about a habit.
Marital status is the survey’s informal marital status grouping, which the file defines relative to spouses of the opposite sex. We weighted with the survey’s final weight and estimated standard errors from its design variables (our arithmetic). Other 95% confidence intervals: living with a partner 12.5% to 22.3%; never married, not living with a partner 48.4% to 56.0%; all men 23.8% to 28.2%.
As a check, the same method gives 48.2% for males aged 15 to 19 who had sex in the past 3 months. Healthy People 2030 gives the same 48.2% as its national baseline for males aged 15 to 19 who used a condom at last intercourse, from the 2022 to 2023 NSFG. Healthy People also notes a redesign of the NSFG, so we do not set these figures beside those from older survey cycles.
The short version
In the NSFG 2022 to 2023 data, about 1 in 6.4 married US men aged 15 to 49 who had sex in the past year used a condom the last time, 15.6% (our arithmetic). Among men who have never married and do not live with a partner, the share was about half (52.2%).
Another page looks at a different question about married life: how many married Americans have cheated.
Last checked: 2026-10-22, against the NSFG 2022 to 2023 male respondent public use file (our arithmetic) and the Healthy People 2030 FP-06 data methodology page. This article was machine-checked against the sources above and has not been expert-reviewed. Spotted an error or a newer public figure? Please tell us on our contact page with the article link and we will review it.
Sources
- S1 National Center for Health Statistics, National Survey of Family Growth, 2022 to 2023 Male Respondent public use data file (CSV). https://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/NSFG/NSFG-2022-2023-MaleRespPUFData.zip . Accessed Oct 22, 2026. Tabulation by Book of Odds.
- S2 National Center for Health Statistics, 2022 to 2023 NSFG: Public Use Data Files, Codebooks, and Documentation. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/nsfg-2022-2023-puf.htm . Accessed Oct 22, 2026.
- S3 Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy People 2030, FP-06 Data Methodology and Measurement. https://odphp.health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/family-planning/increase-proportion-adolescent-males-who-used-condom-last-time-they-had-sex-fp-06/data-methodology . Accessed Oct 22, 2026.