Anal sex getting really popular among heterosexuals, CDC reports

While the Center for Disease Control tracks lots of aspects of our daily lives, the clear winner for "most interesting statistics report" is their study of America's sex life, which they obviously research for its relevance to health issues like fertility and sexually transmitted infections and diseases. But those of us with more prurient minds can read it as a peek inside our fellow citizens' bedrooms, and my what an interesting look we're getting with these most recent results. Note: the sample was made up of 13,459 men and women between the ages of fifteen and forty-four, so do not apply this data to those fifty-year olds in your life. You'll look like a complete fool.

A few fun facts we learn:

- Heterosexuals (aged twenty-five to forty-four, at least) are really digging anal sex these days! 36% of women and 44% of men have engaged in the act with an opposite sex partner. As Neil Patrick Harris sang about the Tony Awards, it's not just for gays anymore. (Though, let's be honest, it never really was.)

- Women are twice as likely to have engaged in same-sex sexual activity than men, with 12.5% reporting in the affirmative to men's 5.2%. Interestingly, the percentage went up from 11.2% for women and down from 6.0% for men since the last such survey in 2002.

- As you might suspect from the last figure, slightly more women report exclusively same-sex attraction in this study than in the one from 2002, while slightly fewer men do the same. In fact, the male age group with the highest percent of exclusively same-sex attraction is the oldest, thirty-five to forty-four, which seemingly goes against the whole "kids these days will sleep with anyone!" trend. But, men aged twenty to twenty-four are the least likely to respond as completely heterosexual, so make of that what you will.

There's a good deal more info if you'd like to pore through the report, which is available as a PDF here. And remember, this is all data retrieved during 2006 to 2008. Who knows how many straight people are using the backdoor these days.