Yesterday Graham was wondering about the popularity of various birth control methods. I found a paper about it on the CDC’s website. I got these numbers from table 6 in the paper. These are just the most popular methods (and whether birth control is used at all). Note that not having sex is filed under not using birth control. In general, I didn’t find the numbers very suprising, except for the number of women having sex and the rarity of unprotected sex.
| age | 15-44 | 15-19 | 20-24 | 25-29 | 30-34 | 35-39 | 40-44 |
| using contraception | 61.9 | 31.5 | 60.7 | 68.0 | 69.2 | 70.8 | 69.1 |
| not using contraception | 38.1 | 68.5 | 39.3 | 32.0 | 30.8 | 29.2 | 30.9 |
| pill | 18.9 | 16.7 | 31.9 | 25.6 | 21.8 | 13.2 | 7.6 |
| female sterilization | 16.7 | 0.0 | 2.2 | 10.3 | 19.0 | 29.2 | 34.7 |
| condom | 11.1 | 8.5 | 14.0 | 14.0 | 11.8 | 11.1 | 8.0 |
| male sterilization | 5.7 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 2.8 | 6.4 | 10.0 | 12.7 |
| other contraceptive | 9.5 | 6.3 | 12.1 | 15.3 | 10.2 | 7.3 | 6.1 |
| no intercourse in 3 months before interview | 18.1 | 56.2 | 17.9 | 8.9 | 7.6 | 9.1 | 10.8 |
| had intercourse | 7.4 | 69.0 | 8.4 | 8.0 | 7.0 | 7.7 | 6.7 |