A. Do you think it is wrong or not wrong if a man and a woman have sexual relations before marriage?
Whether premarital sex is wrong · Asked in 4 waves, 1991–2008 · 5,455 responses · weighted estimates computed from individual responses
Shares of people who gave an answer. Each column is one wave, evenly spaced rather than to scale in time; hover for exact shares.
| Group | Always wrong | Almost always wrong | Wrong only sometimes | Not wrong at all | n | MoE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All respondents |
| Poll | Field dates | Mode | Respondents | Responses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Social Survey 2008 | 2008-04-17 to 2008-09-13 | face to face | 2,023 | 1,365 |
| General Social Survey 1998 | 1998-02-01 to 1998-06-19 | face to face | 2,832 | 1,284 |
| General Social Survey 1994 | 1994-01-04 to 1994-06-29 | face to face | 2,992 | 1,447 |
| General Social Survey 1991 | 1991-02-09 to 1991-05-06 | face to face | 1,517 | 1,359 |
Shares of people who gave an answer. A group’s column is left blank in waves where its effective sample is under 50; hover for exact shares.
| 24% |
| 9% |
| 17% |
| 51% |
| 1365 |
| ±3 |
| White | 24% | 8% | 18% | 51% | 1056 | ±4 |
| Black | 28% | 14% | 11% | 47% | 187 | ±9 |
| Other races | 20% | 11% | 14% | 55% | 122 | ±10 |
General Social Survey 2008 · US adults 18+ living in households (English, and Spanish since 2006). Shares of people who gave an answer. n is unweighted; ± is the 95% margin of error at 50% from the weighted effective sample. Groups with an effective sample under 50 are grayed; under 20, hidden.