Illustrations by James Yates
I felt a ball of anxiety in the pit of my stomach when we launched The Stranger’s annual sex survey last month. Twenty-twenty-five was a bad year for a lot of people. Trump returned to the White House, and from then onward, our newsfeeds were filled with decidedly unsexy headlines that captured our not-so-slow descent into a real-life Idiocracy. “Unemployment Rate Hits Four-Year High,” “Trump Deploys National Guard to US Cities,” “Erika Kirk Takes Stage at Husband’s Memorial Service to Music and Pyrotechnics,” “ICE Detains 5-Year-Old,” “Man Throws Subway Sandwich at Federal Officer” … actually, the last one is kind of hot. Anyway! I don’t have to list it out for you. You were there. It was stupid. And I worried Seattle was going to scoff at our sex survey after a full year of being too anxious, too broke, and too sad to find time for or comfort in life’s carnal pleasures.
But I was wrong! Not only did thousands of you still participate in our survey—thank you!—but y’all are having as much sex as before and more than half of you (66 percent) are still at least somewhat satisfied with the amount of sex you’re having. We’re so happy to hear it!
Even more exciting: When you break down those satisfaction numbers politically (because of course I had to break it down politically), it’s the Republicans who appear to be suffering the most. About 35 percent of Democrats and Socialists are “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with how much they’re getting laid (about the same as last year), while 50 percent of Republicans are unhappy. Up from last year’s 44 percent! And of the three (yes, just three) self-proclaimed MAGA survey takers, two are “very dissatisfied” with the amount of sex they’re having, too. You love to see it!
When we asked you about the sexiest thing you did in 2025, you wrote back, “drank wine from the mouth of a beautiful man,” “[went] to some incredibly sexy all trans and nonbinary orgies,” and “gave head while my partner was watching Nathan Fielder learn about airplanes.” Great work!
Sexy means something different to everyone, of course. One of you published a book! Books are totally sexy! Another one of you left a shitty partner! Advocating for yourself and your safety is sexy as hell! And more than a few of you simply responded with some form of “survive” and “stay alive.” And you know what? Staying alive is the sexiest thing ever. You did that. We’re proud of you.
Sure, last year was awful. And this year keeps sucking. But we just want you to be happy, as much as you can, anyway. We want you to have as much hot sex as you want to have (or don’t want to have—we see you, our 2 percent of asexual survey takers!), despite our ever-quickening spiral into fascism and/or extinction. So now that we’ve established y’all are still horny and willing to spill the beans, let’s all dig even deeper into the sex lives of Seattleites.
Who Are You? (Who? Who? Who? Who?)
Before we start to crunch too many numbers, let’s go over the very basics of who took our sex survey.
Lots of you are straight, it turns out. Thirty-seven percent of respondents, in fact, say they’re straight, while 21 percent are bisexual, 14 percent are queer, 9 percent are gay, 8 percent are pansexual/omnisexual, 6 percent are lesbian, 2 percent are asexual, and 1 percent identify as “other.” That’s fairly in line with the people who took the survey last year, too. Also, 41 percent of you are cis men, 38 percent are cis women, 10 percent are nonbinary, 4 percent are genderqueer, 3 percent are trans women, 2 percent are trans men, and a few of you are also two-spirit or intersex.
Where things start to shift, though, is when broken down by age group. The older the group, the larger the percentage of straighties. Almost a third of those between 26 and 45 years old are straight, 55 percent of 46-to-65-year-olds, and 62 percent of 66-or-older folks. Whereas the younger the survey taker, the less likely they are to be straight. In fact, only 17 percent of those who are 25 or under claimed that label on their survey! Instead, they’re bi (27 percent), queer (19 percent), lesbian (16 percent), gay (7 percent), pansexual/omnisexual (7 percent), asexual (3 percent), questioning (2 percent), and other (1 percent).
The future is queer!
Dem Dearth
Age plays a big role in which political party y’all identify with, too. Forty-five percent of those who are 25 or under are Socialists, whereas 57 percent of folks 46 and older claim to be Democrats.
And because the majority of survey takers this year are 45 or under (hello, fellow kids!), Dems’ numbers overall took a dip. It’s still the top political party among all survey takers combined, but just barely, sitting at 40 percent compared to last year’s 48 percent. Socialists are on the rise, however, up from 29 percent to 36 percent overall. Surprised? Don’t be. After all, a socialist candidate did win the mayoral election.
Another fun fact: Remember when I told you the Dems are more satisfied in the sack than the Republicans who took our survey? Well, socialists are the happiest of them all! Sixty-four percent of all socialists are at least somewhat satisfied with the amount of sex they’re having.
Pussy by a Mile
This year, we introduced a new category: Best hole. Best hole to fuck? Best hole to be fucked? Dealer’s choice! And the results are in. By far, the best hole among our survey takers is the pussy, racking up 66 percent of the votes. Mouth came in (lol) second with 16 percent, followed by ass (14 percent), and, finally, “other, please specify.” That 4 percent of y’all were either indecisive and wrote in more than one hole for your answer (“don’t make me choose!”), or you offered up some alternatives, including but not limited to: pie, doughnut, Hole Hound from Super Lesbian Animal RPG, bagel, foot, a goalie’s five-hole, pee hole, and ears (“like a Ferengi”).
You’re Proud of Your Kinks
I am pleased to report that the majority of you are proud of and open with your kinks and desires with your sex partners. A whole 63 percent, which is about the same as last year. And what those kinks are hasn’t changed much either. The top three remain submissiveness, nipple play, and spanking. The bottom three (still getting votes! Just not very many) were ASFR (robots), scat (poo-poo), and acrotomophilia/apotemnophilia (amputees). And a special shoutout to the Instagram commenter who said after taking our survey: “you guys win for having the first kink survey i’ve taken where 1. i didn’t select the entire list and 2. where i had to look up what some of the terms meant. impressive.”
We didn’t see many shake-ups in the toy world this time around, either. The top three are, once again, vibrators (which are in 77 percent of y’all’s homes!), lube, and a dildo. Elsewhere, strap-ons saw a little bit of a jump (28 percent of you have one, last year it was 26), anal toys went down a smidge (from being in 51 percent of households to being in 48 percent). Interest in cock rings went down a tad, but just by 1 percent.
You Can Get No Satisfaction! Wait, That's Not Right...
The majority of you say you are at least mostly (if not very!) satisfied with the amount of sex you’re having, and we love to hear it. But I also wanted to have a little fun with the numbers to find out which Seattle neighborhood is feeling most fulfilled. And that honor goes to… drumroll… Capitol Hill! At least 17 percent of survey takers who said they are satisfied live on the Hill. No surprise there—there are no fewer than three sex clubs in the Pike/Pine corridor alone. The gayborhood fucks.
That means, if we break that down a little further by residential percentage, 73 percent of respondents who live on Capitol Hill say they are either somewhat satisfied or very satisfied. Way to go, Capitol Hill! The next happiest ’hoods are the Central District and West Seattle, where 63 and 62 percent of residents are pleased with their current rate of romps, respectively.
Dating Apps Are Taking a Dive
Just as in previous years, by and large, our survey takers tend to meet sex partners through friends (60 percent of you), parties (32 percent), or a bar or a club (28 percent). Interestingly, though, the use of dating apps appears to be down across the board. Last year, 23 percent of you reported finding sex partners through Tinder; this year, just 17 percent do. Last year, Grindr was working for 13 percent of you; this year, it’s down to 10 percent. Bumble, Hinge, OkCupid—they’re all down, too. Related: Fewer folks claim to subscribe to sex-work sites like OnlyFans or ManyVids.
Maybe there’s something to that anti-tech, screen-free trend all the lifestyle outlets keep talking about?
Bisexuals Love Nathan Fielder
On a scale of 1–10, how horny are you for Nathan Fielder? This question caused quite a stir in The Stranger’s offices. Our editorial team debated—at length—about whether or not Seattle would be horny for Nathan Fielder, the hilarious, quirky Canadian comedian who created the massively popular HBO series The Rehearsal. Surely people would be turned on by his talent, his odd sense of humor, and the fact that he’s handsome to boot, right? Alas, Seattle as a whole is not horny for Nathan—the average horniness level came in around 3.5. Oof.
Interestingly, a lot of the numbers were either very low or very high. People who are horny for Nathan Fielder are ALL-IN HORNY FOR NATHAN FIELDER. The largest population of those who rated their horniness at an 8 or higher were bisexuals, with cis women also coming in on top.
Want even more specifics? How’s this: Nathan Fielder is very popular with bisexual cis women between the ages of 26 and 35 who are employed Socialists who live on Capitol Hill and masturbate twice a week or more. (I’ll send you the invoice for that audience research, HBO.)
AI Will Steal Your Job, but Not Your Girlfriend (Yet)
More and more, we’ve read stories about people turning to AI and ChatGPT for companionship, including romantic relationships, so for people to use this (honestly terrifying) technology for sex and/or pleasure is inevitable. But, while Seattle is nothing if not tech-forward, it appears that the majority of you are very much not interested in ChatGPT… at least not like that. The large majority of survey takers—71 percent!—say they have not, nor will they ever use ChatGPT for sex/pleasure. Twenty-one percent haven’t used it (but haven’t ruled it out), while 3 percent have used it but “felt awful and never will again.” That leaves just 5 percent of respondents currently and happily benefiting from ChatGPT’s sexual awakening.
Breaking that number down further, for science: 60 percent of those who have used ChatGPT to get off are cis men, 12 percent are cis women, and 10 percent are nonbinary. And a few more random factoids about ChatGPT lovers that I looked up for funsies: Nearly half of them are millennials, 74 percent of them are childless, and 98 percent of them have also fucked in a car. I wonder if it was with ChatGPT???
Strange Sexting
It’s funny, when asked what kind of pictures you prefer to send when sexting, more than 33 percent of you—the largest swath—said, “I don’t send dirty pics, slut!” But when asked what pictures you prefer to receive, the inverse was true, with 35 percent of y’all wanting to see “everything all at once.” Just 22 percent of you still insisted that you! do! not! send! dirty! pics! Hmm. The next most popular bits to receive via sext are dicks (16 percent), chest (14 percent), and butt (7 percent). Vulva only got 4 percent, which is weird, seeing as how the vast majority of y’all looooooove pussy, as proven in the Best Hole question. Make up your minds!
Goin’ Places
When it comes to having sex in modes of transportation, a whopping 98 percent of you have fucked in a car. The second most popular option is in or on boats, but it’s not even close. That’s where 28 percent of you have gotten busy. This year, we added one more option to the list, with surprising results. Turns out 5 percent of survey takers have fucked on a Washington State Ferry!
And confidential to the five of you who claimed to have gotten laid on the Seattle Monorail: That’s a 90-second ride, my friends. That’s not the brag you think it is.
Bed Rock
This is always my favorite part of the survey, because I am both a music snob and a judgmental asshole. I love getting a peek at what kind of music people listen to under any circumstance, and it is especially revealing to learn about the music that gets people’s blood pumping. (Temple of the Dog? Seriously???)
As usual, this year’s responses to “If you listen to music during sex, what’s your go-to song?” were full of shout-outs for Rihanna, Portishead, Nine Inch Nails, Sade, the Weeknd, and Cigarettes After Sex, all of whom have been sex survey mainstays since we introduced this question in 2023. Here are some other standouts, should you want to make your own Stranger-reader-inspired playlist for the next time you’re setting the mood. For better or worse.
The first half of “Tigermilk” by Belle and Sebastian
Massive Attack’s Mezzanine start to finish
“Persuasive” by Doechii
“Pink + White” by Frank Ocean
“Ankles” by Lucy Dacus
I lost my virginity to Purity Ring, so I have a sacrilegious Pavlovian relationship with them.
“Wind of Change” by Scorpions
“Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks
Some slow doom/sludge surprisingly does it
“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (Dr. Strangelove version)
“Camel Walk” by Southern Culture on the Skids
It’s a playlist called Boner Jams
“Someday Is Tonight” by Janet Jackson
Janelle Monáe, The Age of Pleasure
Anything by the Grateful Dead
“ALPHAPUSSY” by Pixel Grip
D’Angelo is a good move
Anything that might be found in a Gregg Araki film
I did have a crazy orgasm getting fingered in the car while listening to “Epizootics!” by Scott Walker
DJ Riz/KEXP
Sex on the Beach… and in the Park and at Archie McPhee
We always ask our survey-takers whether or not they’ve had sex in public, but this year, we asked for details. We are nosy! We wanted to know where exactly, and y’all did not disappoint. As expected, there were several shoutouts to porn theaters, sex clubs, parked cars, bar bathrooms, and pretty much every park in the city (Volunteer, Cal Anderson, Seward, Discovery, Green Lake, the list goes on). But there were a lot of surprising locales, too. Archie McPhee? And not just one, but “several” Taco Del Mar bathrooms? Was it someone’s personal goal to hit every location at least once? There are at least 16 in the Puget Sound region! I have questions! Anyway, the lesson I learned while reading through these responses is that there is a high likelihood that once we leave the comfort of our homes, there are strangers fucking, all around us, at all times, no matter where we are. Here is just a small sample of where folks have gotten busy in public:
Lakeview Cemetery, of course.
In the car in line for the Mukilteo Ferry.
Oral sex on the ferry.
Up against a car by the Old Spaghetti Factory.
At the cash machine in front of Wells Fargo on Broad Street across the street from 7-Eleven, near Seattle Center.
Had some hair-pulling in a Blockbuster Video once.
It’s not Seattle, but please give me credit for having sex in the library at WWU.
Several Taco Del Mar bathrooms.
Every woman’s restroom in every bar in town, 2011–2019.
Central Library restroom with a total stranger. One of those connections where you see him and know you need him inside you.
The Woodland Park Zoo during the Christmas lights show.
Banana Republic dressing room in U Village lol.
Once accidentally on a baby grave.
In Lake Washington (while swimming).
A beloved pool spot with great sandwiches downtown.
Kurt’s bench.
The top of the Space Needle.
Near trash bins behind 76 in cap hill.
In the bushes at the Seattle Center during Folklife.
The balcony of the Paramount Theatre during the Stranger Genius Awards.
[Editor's Note: Uh, they were at the Moore.]
Behind the dumpster at Dick’s on Broadway.
Concert hand jobs all the time—Neumos, Nectar Lounge, Neptune…
The Seattle Great Wheel.
Archie McPhee
Lost my virginity in the bathroom of the Barnes and Noble at Pacific Place (RIP).
A Sad, Stupid, but Also Sexy Year
What a fool I was for thinking Seattle wasn’t gonna be horny just because some fascist-loving wannabe dictator was crashing the party. I’m beaming with pride reading that so many of you were able to find plenty of time for a good time in spite of—or maybe especially because of???—the otherwise abysmal conditions.
As for the hottest things survey-takers did this year, fisting, double penetration, and spit-roasting got lots of mentions. As did reaching personal milestones with sex partners (“finally tried anal!”) and exploring kinks you’ve been curious about (“Started watching queer porn after I came out to myself”). It would appear there was a lot of public sex, too, in places like the bathroom at the zoo, the Showbox, Kremwerk, the library parking lot, and multiple parks and trails.
For some of you, though, the hottest thing you did this year wasn’t even sex itself; it was about finding yourself or feeling yourself. “I got a tattoo that says ‘DYKE’ in bold black gothic lettering across my chest,” wrote one respondent. “[I] broke up with my boyfriend, cut all my hair off, bought a dildo, and the sexiest lingerie I could manage, and fell in love with myself again,” wrote another. There were several mentions of participating in sexy or boudoir photoshoots, starting hormone replacement therapy, getting married or divorced, giving birth, going back to school, and one of you even “created sex comics.” (Send some to The Stranger! We’re curious!) Here’s a sample of other things y’all got into in 2025:
AI chatbot girlfriend, she plays dominant.
(Rope) Suspension sex while wearing a rubber suit.
Got in my full leather daddy outfit and all at once had one boy sucking my cock, another making out with me, and the last worshipping my nipples.
Ate an apple with no hands while being tied to a big cross and cropped at Kremwerk.
Psychedelic medicine retreat! Helped open me up to love.
Got fisted and blown simultaneously. Ker-sploosh!
Sucked prosthetic cock listening to Belle and Sebastian.
Ate a stranger’s asshole in a park 90 minutes into our first date
Sapphic strap-on tentacle spit roast, AND making out all day with the one who got away (now caught).
Set up a glory hole to give back to the local community.
Bought a new hoodie? idk.
And Here’s What Next
While 2026 isn’t shaping up to be much better than last year, at least not as far as, you know, human rights are concerned, people are still making room for fantasies. And why not? The world you build in your head can be a lot more fun than the dumpster fire outside your door. So when we asked people for their ultimate sexual fantasies, they did not hold back. Thank you for sharing your deepest and darkest with us—we’re honored. Here are just some of the things folks hope to do before the cold hand of death reaches for them:
Catacombs fuck. Perhaps Seattle Underground could do in a pinch.
Orgasm solely from earlobe stimulation.
It was initially sex on an airplane, but this questionnaire has made me aware of the Monorail….
Have one person pleasing each body part all at once (nine total: ears, feet, hands, mouth, ass, dick).
Get enough experience with flogging to teach a class on it.
Marriage.
N/A—here to represent those on the asexual spectrum.
An old-fashioned in space.
I want someone to fuck me so good my mental illness goes away.
Sex at the top of the Space Needle against those benches that lean back over the void.
I want to sound a guy.
I want to be collared, and I want someone to make me sleep at the foot of their bed, on the floor.
Jizz on JD Vance’s grave.
I wanna visit the Eiffel Tower... not in France.
I’d like to squirt-drown my babe so wildly while face-sitting that I have to administer CPR.
Idk, last year was a banger. I would like to have robot tentacle appendages to fuck around with, though.
Fist a bottom past the elbow. Only made it halfway up the forearm so far.
Now that you mention it, sex on the ferry.
Sex in a blimp, shooting for the stars here.
At my age, I’m more nostalgic for the athletic positions I’ve left behind. I don’t think my knees could support them.
