Richer Elderly People Find Sex More Important

Elderly people with higher education level and more money find sex more important in later life than their less fortunate counterparts, a survey suggests.

The 2017 survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare released Sunday asked elderly respondents whether sex is important to them, and 65.9 percent answered no, 21.9 percent yes, and 12.2 percent had no opinion.

The ministry has been carrying out the survey of 10,000 elderly people every three years since 2008.

But although the majority said sex is not important at their time of life, there were differences depending on the level of education and wealth.

Only 6.4 percent of illiterate respondents and 12.6 percent amongst people without any formal education answered that sex is important. But the figure rose to 18.5 percent for those who had primary schooling, 26.8 percent among those who had a middle school education, 31.4 percent with a high school education, and 38.8 percent with a college education.

Also, only 12.4 percent of the elderly in the bottom 20 percent income bracket said sex is important, compared to 28.8 percent for those in the top 20 percent.

There was also a clear difference of opinions in terms of gender, with 37.7 percent of men versus only 10.2 percent of women saying sex is important.

There was not much difference geographically, with 22.7 percent of the elderly in rural areas saying sex is important compared to 21.5 percent in urban areas.

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