How many people watch porn, and how many have a problem with it

How often US adults watch

The question sounds simple. How many people watch porn? The answer moves with who is asked, how the question is worded and what span of time it covers. And that is before anyone asks whether the watching is a problem.

In 2019 Grubbs, Kraus and Perry published a survey of 2,075 US adult internet users, recruited through Qualtrics and matched to the 2010 census¹. Everyone who had ever watched porn said how often they had in the past year, on a scale that ran from never to daily or more¹. 47% of the men and 16% of the women had watched at least once a month¹.

The rest of the picture comes from the counts in the paper's table, because some of its printed percentages are wrong¹. Worked out that way, 69.3% of men and 33.4% of women had watched at least once in the year¹. Weekly or more, it was 7.6% of women and 32.7% of men, and daily or more 1.9% and 8.2%¹.

So in the US, watching is common for men and far from rare for women. One man in three watched every week, and about one woman in thirteen¹. The sample was matched to the census, but it covered only adults who use the internet, and only in the US¹. It also counts how often, not how troubled. Frequent use is not the same as problem use, and we come back to that below¹.

Students in Muslim-majority countries

A US figure is easy to wave away as a Western habit. We looked for a comparable survey from a Muslim-majority country and found none. What we did find were smaller surveys of students, and they point the same way.

In Bangladesh, Mamun and colleagues gave a paper survey to first-year students at Jahangirnagar University, in their halls, between January and May 2018². 221 of the 308 who answered had come across porn at least once, 71.8%². Among women it was 35.5%, 33 of 93, and among men 87.4%, 188 of 215².

In Malaysia, Zohor Ali and colleagues surveyed 986 students aged 18 to 25 at seven colleges in Penang, in lecture halls and tutorial rooms between June and November 2018³. 91% were Malay³. 735 of them, 74.5%, had been exposed to porn, counting reading it as well as watching³. A narrower question, whether they had ever watched it, still drew 61%³.

Two countries, two separate teams, and the figures landed within three points of each other, 71.8% and 74.5%²³. A later survey from Iran asked about the past year instead of ever. In 2022 Pouralijan, Bőthe and Farnam surveyed 450 married university students across Iran online, and 39.6% had used porn in the past year⁴. That was 34% of the women and 52% of the men⁴. Men reported more than women in every one of these surveys that split by sex, as they did in the US¹²³⁴.

None of these is a national rate. Each student survey covers one university or one district, and the answers are self-reported²³. The Bangladesh questions were the authors' own, not a published scale². We also left out the one figure we found for Pakistan. The same counts appear in a later paper that gives different survey dates, and we could not trust it.

Did lockdown change it

In early 2020 Pornhub reported traffic rises of 38% to 61% in lockdown regions⁵. Grubbs and colleagues point out that those rises came while the site was giving away its paid content for free⁵. A traffic count on one site cannot say whether more people watched, so they asked the people.

Their study followed the same US adults through five surveys, from August 2019 to October 2020⁵. It was a YouGov panel matched to the US population at the start, and it shrank from 2,518 people to 1,269⁵. In August 2019, 59% of men and 21% of women had watched at least once a month, on average over the past year⁵. In February 2020 the figures were 45% and 12%⁵. In May 2020, during the first lockdowns, they were 58% and 19%⁵.

That May figure was up from February but still lower than in August 2019⁵. Then use fell. By August 2020 it was 38% of men and 8% of women, and by October 37% and 7%⁵.

Asking people about their own use gave the same answer. In May 2020, 578 people who had watched in the past month were asked whether their use had changed since the pandemic began⁵. 66% said it had not, 20% said it had gone down and 14% said it had gone up⁵. By August, the 14% whose use went up no longer differed from other users in how often they watched⁵. Problematic use, measured on a short 4-question scale the authors say is less accurate than a clinical measure, fell among men and stayed low among women⁵.

The time frames are not the same across the five surveys. The first asked about the past year, the second about the past six months, the third about the past month and the last two about the past three months, and the authors converted the answers to one scale⁵. The paper's results still call the August and October 2020 figures past-month use⁵. Only about half of the first sample, 1,269 of 2,518, answered the last survey, and only 868 answered all five⁵. A few of the paper's table figures do not match its text⁵. Even with all that, nothing in it looks like a lasting surge.

The two US surveys also disagree with each other. The 2019 study put monthly use among men at 47%, and the first wave of the pandemic study put it at 59%¹⁵. Different samples and different wording gave figures twelve points apart¹⁵. Keep that in mind for the next question, because the wording matters even more there.

How many have a problem with it

The first large study to compare problem use across countries is the International Sex Survey, run online in 26 languages from October 2021 to May 2022⁶. 82,243 people in 42 countries took part, and about 75,000 of them answered three published scales about the past six months⁶.

Bőthe and colleagues scored each scale with its own published cut-off⁶. On the 18-item Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale, 3.17% scored at risk, 2,378 of 75,059⁶. On the 6-item version of the same scale it was 9.83%⁶. On the Brief Pornography Screen, five items long, it was 16.57%, 12,441 of 75,069⁶.

Same people, same six months, and the share at risk runs from about 3 in 100 to about 1 in 6⁶. They draw the line in different places. The five-item screen is built to catch every possible case, so the authors expect it to flag more people by mistake⁶. A screen is a first look, and scoring at risk on one is not a diagnosis⁶. Any single headline figure for porn addiction is hiding which test produced it.

The number we find hardest to ignore is what came next. Of those who scored at risk, only 4 to 10% had ever sought treatment, depending on the scale⁶. Another 21 to 37% wanted treatment but did not seek it⁶. On every scale, those who wanted treatment and did not seek it outnumbered those who ever had.

This survey was not a probability sample, and 74% of those who took it had completed college or university, so no country figure in it is a national rate⁶. Egypt, Iran and Pakistan were planned but could not get ethics approval in time, so they are missing⁶. For Iran, the student survey above fills part of the gap⁴. For Pakistan we still have no number we trust.

Where Islam draws the line

Every scale above asks the same kind of question. Has porn cost you control, time or peace of mind? Score past the cut-off and you count as at risk⁶. Islam does not wait for a score. The Quran tells believing men to lower their gaze and guard their chastity, and gives believing women the same command in the next verse⁷. The line sits at the look itself, before any habit has formed.

The Prophet named that look. In a hadith recorded by al-Bukhari, he said that the zina of the eyes is looking⁸. The Quran goes further than forbidding zina. It forbids coming near it, and calls it a shameful deed and an evil way⁹. So someone who watches once a month has not stayed under some safe threshold. The 3%, 10% and 17% above count people who scored at risk of problem use⁶. By the Islamic measure, the 47% of US men and 16% of US women who watched every month had already crossed the line¹⁷.

The ruling does not stop at the viewer. The Quran warns that those who love to see indecency spread among the believers will have a painful punishment in this world and the next¹⁰. Filming porn, acting in it, selling it and hosting it all spread indecency, so that warning falls on the people who make it. Another verse tells believers to cooperate in goodness and righteousness, and never in sin and transgression¹¹. Studios keep filming because people keep watching. The viewer and the producer stand at two ends of the same trade, and Islam holds both to account.

Islamic law treats it the same way. A 2023 review in the Metro Islamic Law Review classes pornography as forbidden and finds that Islamic criminal law punishes those who offend by taʿzir, a penalty the judge or ruler sets¹². It counts looking at porn as zina of the eyes, a sin without the fixed hadd penalty, though its conclusion also lists zina among the punishments¹². The review is about law, not prevalence, and it fixes no single sentence for taʿzir¹².

The screens are still worth taking. They show how far porn has taken hold, and who most needs help⁶. But in Islam the aim is not a lower score. It is to stop looking, and for no one to be filming in the first place.

How they found it

• A survey firm drew 2,075 US adult internet users, matched to the 2010 census. The monthly figures are printed in the paper. The others come from the counts in its table, because some of its printed percentages are wrong.
• In Bangladesh, 313 first-year students at Jahangirnagar University filled in a paper survey in their halls between January and May 2018.
• In Malaysia, 986 students at seven colleges in Penang filled in a questionnaire in lecture halls and tutorial rooms between June and November 2018. 91% were Malay.
• A 2022 online survey of 450 married university students across Iran, recruited through social media, found 39.6% had used porn in the past year, 34% of women and 52% of men.
• A YouGov panel of US adults answered five surveys from August 2019 to October 2020. In May 2020, 578 people who had watched porn in the past month were asked whether their use had changed since the pandemic began.
• The International Sex Survey ran online in 26 languages. 82,243 people in 42 countries took part, and about 75,000 of them answered three published scales about the past six months.

What it cannot tell you

• The International Sex Survey was not a probability sample, and 74% of it had completed college or university. The Iran survey recruited married students through social media. The US surveys were matched to census figures, and the 2019 one covered only adults who use the internet.
• How often is not how troubled, and scoring at risk on a screen is not a diagnosis.
• Each student survey covers one university or one district, so neither is a national rate. The answers are self-reported, and the Bangladesh questions were the authors' own, not a published scale.
• The one Pakistani figure we found, from 151 young people online, appears with identical counts in a later paper that gives different survey dates. We did not use it.
• In the pandemic study, the five surveys asked about the past year, the past six months, the past month and, twice, the past three months. Only about half of the first sample answered the last survey.
• Egypt, Iran and Pakistan were planned for the International Sex Survey but could not get ethics approval in time, so they are missing.

In P-Minus

P-Minus asks a short published screen at sign-up. You get a plain read on where you are, never a diagnosis.

Sources

1. Grubbs JB, Kraus SW, Perry SL. Self-reported addiction to pornography in a nationally representative sample: the roles of use habits, religiousness, and moral incongruence. J Behav Addict. 2019;8(1):88-93.
2. Mamun MAA, Arafat SMY, Ambiatunnahar M, Griffiths MD. Attitudes and risk factors of pornography consumption among Bangladeshi university students: an exploratory study. Int J Ment Health Addict. 2019;17(2):323-35.
3. Zohor Ali AA, Muhammad NA, Jamil TR, Ahmad S, Abd Aziz NA. Internet pornography exposures amongst young people in Malaysia. Addict Behav Rep. 2021;14:100350.
4. Pouralijan Z, Bőthe B, Farnam F. Pornography use, demographic and sexual health characteristics among university students: a gender-based comparative study of non-users, non-problematic users, and problematic users. Reprod Health. 2024;21:103.
5. Grubbs JB, Perry SL, Grant Weinandy JT, Kraus SW. Porndemic? A longitudinal study of pornography use before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in a nationally representative sample of Americans. Arch Sex Behav. 2022;51(1):123-37.
6. Bőthe B, Nagy L, Koós M, et al. Problematic pornography use across countries, genders, and sexual orientations: insights from the International Sex Survey and comparison of different assessment tools. Addiction. 2024;119(5):928-50.
7. The Quran 24:30-31. Translation by Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran.
8. Sahih al-Bukhari 6243, Book of Asking Permission.
9. The Quran 17:32. Translation by Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran.
10. The Quran 24:19. Translation by Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran.
11. The Quran 5:2. Translation by Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran.
12. Aulia R, Rizqi R, Usmani SAA. Pornography in the perspective of Islamic criminal law. MILRev Metro Islamic Law Rev. 2023;2(1):79-89.

Sources checked October 2026.