Condom use is declining for the first time in five years in the Nordic countries. Among young people aged 16–35, the use of condom has decreased from 58 percent in 2023, to 54 percent in 2024, according to the survey by the Swedish National Association for Sexual Information (RFSU).
RFSU: Clear pandemic effect
Pelle Ullholm, sex educator at RFSU says Pandemin is a cause.
– People were careful with hand spirit and distance and it also affected the safety of sex. It became more obvious as a debutant, he says.
The fact that young girls use another contraceptive method can also affect the decline, according to Ullholm.
– Of course, pregnancy protection is important, but if both know it, it sometimes seems more difficult to talk about a condom, and then protection against STDs is dropped away in the moment.
It is easier to say that you do not want to make the person pregnant than to explain the risk of infecting him with a STD.
– It is important to work to increase so guys feel worthy and want to take care of their own prevention, says Pelle Ullholm.
Rising trend as reduced
The proportion of young people who used a condom last time they had sex with a new partner has also gone down, from 53 to 47 percent, according to the survey. The level among the youngest in the target group 16-20-year-olds who protect themselves with a new partner have gone down to the same level as 2016, which violates the positive trend.
“What we now see is that the increase has stopped, which is also visible in our sales that have been relatively still in comparison with the annual average during 2020-2023,” says Anette Otsterström, communications manager at RFSU in a press release.
Young Swedes closer to the bottom – Finns top
Young Finns are the best in the Nordic countries in using a condom at their sex debut, 70 percent of those who responded say they have used a condom. The second best is the Danes with 69 percent. In Sweden, 57 percent used a condom at the sex debut and in Norway only 56.