57% of Australians aged 18 to 35 say a partner has choked (strangled) them during sex, according to a 2023 survey of 4,702 young adults published in Archives of Sexual Behavior (2024).
Across all ages, it’s less common. 21.4% of US women aged 18 to 60 had ever been choked during sex in a 2016 national survey, according to Herbenick et al. (2020).
In this article, we’ll break down how common choking is by country, age, gender and sexual orientation, how often it happens without consent, why people say they do it, what role porn plays, and what medical and legal evidence says about the risks.
Top Choking During Sex Statistics
- 57% of Australians aged 18 to 35 have been choked during sex, and 51% have choked a partner.
- 21.4% of US women aged 18 to 60 have been choked during sex, in a nationally representative survey.
- 38% of UK women aged 18 to 39 have experienced choking during consensual sex.
- 61.4% of bisexual US students have been choked during sex, compared with 35.7% of heterosexual students.
- 53% of UK women who had experienced slapping, choking, gagging or spitting said it was unwanted at least some of the time.
- 74% of students who engaged in choking said it “seemed exciting,” while 13% said they’d seen it in porn and wanted to try it.
- 18.8% of US students who had been choked reported an alteration in consciousness, such as blurred vision or passing out.
How Common Is Choking During Sex?
Very common among young adults. 57% of Australians aged 18 to 35 have been strangled during sex, and 51% have strangled a partner, according to Sharman, Fitzgerald and Douglas (2024).
Researchers use “choking” and “sexual strangulation” for the same act: pressure on a partner’s neck during sex. In the US, 64% of women undergraduates at a large Midwestern university had been choked during sex in a 2020 campus survey of about 5,000 students, according to the International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM).
The UK numbers are similar. 38% of UK women aged 18 to 39 said they had experienced choking during consensual sex, according to a Savanta ComRes poll for BBC Radio 5 Live of 2,002 women (2019).
Here’s a breakdown of how many people have been choked during sex, by survey:
| Survey (Fieldwork) | Population | Ever Choked During Sex |
|---|---|---|
| US campus survey (2020) | Undergraduate women, one US university | 64% |
| Australia (2023) | Adults 18–35, n=4,702 | 57% |
| UK, Savanta for BBC (2019) | Women 18–39, n=2,002 | 38% |
| UK, IFAS (2024) | 16–34-year-olds (includes 16–17), n=4,175 | 35% |
| GB, YouGov (2025) | Sexually active women 18–29 | 25% |
| US national (2016) | Women 18–60 | 21.4% |
Sources: ISSM, Archives of Sexual Behavior, Savanta ComRes, ISSWSH, YouGov, PubMed
The base matters. In the same UK study for the Institute for Addressing Strangulation (IFAS), 66% of respondents with sexual experience had been strangled at least once, according to a Culture Reframed summary of the report.
Is Choking During Sex Becoming More Common?
The evidence points that way, though the surveys differ in who they asked. Older surveys found far lower rates. In a 2011–12 online convenience survey of 1,606 heterosexual adults, mostly students, 13% of women and 9% of men had been choked by a partner’s hands, per the same presentation. The samples differ, so this isn’t a strict trend line.
Attitudes show the same generational split. 12% of GB adults aged 18 to 29 call choking during sex “tame” or “neither tame nor extreme,” compared with 1% of over-60s, according to YouGov (2025).
Among US students, 64% of women had ever been choked with consent in Herbenick’s preliminary 2023 campus survey, the same share as in 2020, according to a 2024 presentation. It’s common at a single encounter too: 18.3% of 3,780 students were choked at their most recent sexual event in 2021, according to Sexuality Research and Social Policy (2025).
Who Gets Choked During Sex, and Who Does the Choking?
Women are choked far more often, and men are more likely than women to choke a partner. 53.9% of women students at a large US university had been choked during sex, compared with 24.9% of men, about 2.2 times as many, according to a 2021 survey of 4,242 students in Archives of Sexual Behavior (2022).
The pattern flips for choking a partner. 44.9% of men had choked a partner, compared with 24.3% of women, or about 1.8 times as many.
Here’s a breakdown of choking by gender:
| Group | Been Choked (US Students, 2021) | Choked a Partner (US Students, 2021) | Been Choked (Australia 18–35, 2023) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Women | 53.9% | 24.3% | 61% |
| Men | 24.9% | 44.9% | 43% |
| Trans, nonbinary or gender diverse | 51.5% | 45.0% | 78% |
Sexual orientation matters too. 61.4% of bisexual students had been choked, about 1.7 times the rate of heterosexual students (35.7%), according to the same US study.
Here’s a breakdown of choking by sexual identity among US students:
| Sexual Identity | Ever Been Choked | Ever Choked a Partner |
|---|---|---|
| Bisexual | 61.4% | 39.9% |
| Pansexual | 58.3% | 52.1% |
| Gay or lesbian | 47.5% | 41.2% |
| Heterosexual | 35.7% | 33.4% |
| Asexual | 12.7% | 8.6% |
Choking is one part of a wider “rough sex” repertoire. Kinks such as BDSM follow a similar pattern, and the most common fetishes show how many people fantasize about them versus act on them.
How Often Does Choking Happen Without Consent?
Often enough to be a major concern. 53% of UK women aged 18 to 39 who had experienced slapping, choking, gagging or spitting during consensual sex said these acts were unwanted at least some of the time, according to the Savanta ComRes poll (2019). That’s 37.6% of all women surveyed (our calculation).
42% of those women had felt pressured, coerced or forced into such acts, and 20% said the experiences had left them upset or frightened at least once.
Asking first isn’t the norm either. In a 2020 Savanta ComRes poll for the same station, billed as a survey of GB men aged 18 to 39 (its methodology describes 2,049 adults in Great Britain), 35% of respondents had choked a partner during consensual sex, and 33% of those who had slapped, choked, gagged or spat on a partner said they don’t ask verbally first.
Here’s a breakdown of consent findings across studies:
| Measure | Figure | Population | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acts were unwanted at least some of the time | 53% | UK women 18–39 who experienced slapping, choking, gagging or spitting | Savanta ComRes (2019) |
| Choking not discussed or not agreed to | 27% | UK 16–34-year-olds who were strangled | IFAS (2024) |
| No consent given before the last time | 24.9% | Australians 18–35 who were strangled | Sharman et al. (2024) |
| Never asked for consent before being choked | 20% | US undergraduates who were choked | Herbenick et al. (2021) |
| Ever choked without consent | 18% | US university women | Herbenick campus survey (2023, preliminary) |
| Choking at most recent event was consensual | 92.7% | US students choked at their last sexual event | Herbenick et al. (2025) |
Consent is also often non-verbal. Among students choked at their most recent sexual event, 38.1% signaled consent only with body language, according to Herbenick et al. (2025).
Why Do People Like Being Choked?
Mostly for novelty and excitement. 74% of US university students who had engaged in choking said it “seemed exciting,” and 62% said it seemed “kinky or adventurous,” according to Herbenick’s campus survey data presented at ISSWSH (2026).
Here’s a breakdown of why students say they engage in choking:
| Reason | Share of Students |
|---|---|
| Seemed exciting | 74% |
| Seemed kinky or adventurous | 62% |
| Thought it would arouse their partner | 30% |
| Thought it would make orgasm easier | 22% |
| Saw it in porn and wanted to try it | 13% |
| A friend said they liked it | 13% |
Many people do enjoy it. 41.1% of US students who had been choked found it “very” pleasurable and 33.8% “somewhat,” while 9.0% didn’t find it pleasurable at all, according to Archives of Sexual Behavior (2022). 81.7% reported pleasurable sensations or euphoria.
Wanting it is also common among young Britons. 43% of GB women aged 18 to 29 want a partner to hold their throat during sex at least rarely, as do 32% of young men, according to YouGov (2025).
Among people in kink communities, partner influence stands out. In an opt-in survey of 1,700 alt-sex practitioners, 31% said they first tried choking because a partner wanted it, according to a 2026 report by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, an advocacy group, and UNC Charlotte.
What Role Does Porn Play in Choking During Sex?
A large one, in people’s own accounts. 61.3% of Australians aged 18 to 35 had seen sexual choking in pornography, and 34.8% said porn was their first source of information about it, according to Archives of Sexual Behavior (2024).
In the UK, 40% of 16-to-34-year-olds named porn as their biggest source of information on sexual strangulation, ahead of social media (38%), according to the IFAS report as summarized by Culture Reframed.
Choking has also become more visible in porn itself. It was absent from the earliest most-viewed Pornhub videos but appeared in 15% of popular videos from the 2020s, in a study of 255 videos uploaded from 2000 to 2024 by Shor and Liu, as reported by PsyPost (2025).
Here’s a breakdown of porn-related choking statistics:
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Australians 18–35 who have seen choking in porn | 61.3% | Sharman et al. (2024) |
| UK 16–34s naming porn as biggest information source | 40% | IFAS (2024) |
| Australians 18–35 whose first information came from porn | 34.8% | Sharman et al. (2024) |
| Most-viewed 2020s Pornhub videos showing choking | 15% | Shor & Liu (2025) |
| Pornhub scenes with physical aggression | 45% | Fritz et al. (2020) |
| Aggressive scenes where a woman is the target | 97% | Fritz et al. (2020) |
| Students who tried choking after seeing it in porn | 13% | Herbenick (2026) |
The link is correlational. In the US national survey, porn use was significantly associated with choking and other “rough” behaviors after adjusting for age and relationship status, per Herbenick et al., but that doesn’t prove porn causes them. Only 5% of the kink-community respondents in the NCSF survey first learned about choking from adult entertainment. Content studies of the most popular porn categories find slapping, gagging or choking in many top videos. Whether that makes viewers more aggressive is one of the contested questions about whether porn is bad for you.
Lawmakers have acted on it. The UK government said on June 19, 2025, that strangulation porn would be banned, after Baroness Bertin’s independent review found porn had helped make strangulation a “sexual norm,” according to GOV.UK. Under section 104 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, possessing such porn carries up to 2 years in prison and publishing it up to 5 years, from November 6, 2026, in England and Wales, per the commencement regulations.
Is Choking During Sex Dangerous?
Yes. Medical and forensic experts consider any restriction of breathing or blood flow to the brain dangerous, and there’s no safe way to do it. In a 2021 survey of 4,242 US students, 18.8% of those who had been choked reported an alteration in consciousness and 2.6% had lost consciousness, according to Archives of Sexual Behavior (2022).
“There’s no evidence there is any safe way to undertake strangulation,” the Australian study’s authors, Heather Douglas and Leah Sharman, write in an article republished by PsyPost. Forensic training material notes that unconsciousness can come on very quickly and that fatal strangulation can leave no external evidence of violence, per San Diego County EMS.
Here’s a breakdown of symptoms reported by US students who had been choked:
| Symptom | Share of Students Who Had Been Choked |
|---|---|
| Felt they could not breathe | 43.0% |
| Could not speak | 37.6% |
| Any alteration in consciousness | 18.8% |
| Neck pain | 18.5% |
| Neck bruises | 14.8% |
| Felt scared | 14.3% |
| Blurry vision | 11.9% |
| Lost vision | 4.0% |
| Lost consciousness | 2.6% |
Trans and nonbinary students reported these effects most often. 33.4% of them reported an alteration in consciousness, compared with 20.3% of women and 13.7% of men.
Brain studies are small but concerning. In a 2021 MRI study of 41 women, 20 who were frequently choked showed differences in cortical thickness and folding compared with 21 who’d never been choked, though the authors say the design rules out causal conclusions, according to Brain and Behavior (2023). In a 2026 crossover study of 29 women, a blood marker of nerve-cell stress (neurofilament light) rose more after sex involving choking than after sex without it, though the authors say the clinical meaning is uncertain and the findings don’t show injury, per Frontiers in Global Women’s Health.
Many young adults underestimate the risk. 29% of UK adults aged 18 to 34 think strangulation during sex can be done safely, and 32% aren’t sure, according to the IFAS survey as reported by Bangor University (2025).
What Does the Law Say About Choking During Sex?
Strangulation is a serious crime in many countries, and consent offers limited protection. Charges for strangulation or suffocation in England and Wales rose from 1,483 in 2022–23 to 8,545 in 2024–25, about 5.8 times as many, according to the Crown Prosecution Service. The first year was a part year, as the offence took effect on June 7, 2022.
The CPS reports these charges as part of its work on domestic abuse. Abuse and consensual choking are different situations, but strangulation by a partner is a major warning sign. Abused women previously strangled by their partner had 7.48 times the odds of later being killed, and 6.70 times the odds of an attempted homicide, compared with other abused women, according to Glass et al. (2008).
Here’s a breakdown of key legal and risk figures:
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Max sentence, strangulation or suffocation (England and Wales) | 5 years | Domestic Abuse Act 2021 |
| CPS charges, 2024–25 | 8,545 | CPS |
| CPS charges, April–June 2025 | 2,656 | CPS |
| New Zealand strangulation charges, year to June 2024 | 1,460 | Ministry of Justice |
| Odds of homicide after prior partner strangulation | 7.48x | Glass et al. (2008) |
| UK women killed where the killer claimed consent or a “sex game” (campaign count) | At least 60 | We Can’t Consent To This |
The so-called “rough sex defence” is also gone in England and Wales. Since the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, a victim’s consent to serious harm for sexual gratification is no longer a defence. The campaign group We Can’t Consent To This counts at least 60 UK women killed in cases where the killer claimed consent or a “sex game.”
If someone has choked you without your consent, you can contact RAINN at 800.656.HOPE or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1.800.799.SAFE (7233) in the US, or the National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247 in the UK. If you’ve lost consciousness or have symptoms after being choked, see a doctor.
Methodology
We reviewed 215 data points from 30 sources. We used peer-reviewed surveys of US adults and university students (Herbenick et al. 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2025), an Australian survey of 4,702 adults aged 18 to 35 (Sharman et al. 2024), UK polls by Savanta ComRes for BBC Radio 5 Live (2019, 2020) and YouGov (2025), and the IFAS and University of Leicester report on UK 16-to-34-year-olds (2024).
The US campus figures come from one large Midwestern university and aren’t nationally representative. The 2022 national age figures and the 2023 campus figures are preliminary results shown in researcher presentations. The Savanta, YouGov and IFAS figures are online polls. The NCSF survey is an opt-in sample of kink-community members run by an advocacy group, and the IFAS report was commissioned by a strangulation-prevention charity. The IFAS sample includes 16- and 17-year-olds.
Porn content figures come from content analyses (Fritz et al. 2020, Shor and Liu 2025). Harm figures come from self-reported symptoms, small pilot brain studies and a case-control study of abused women (Glass et al. 2008). Legal data come from legislation.gov.uk, the Crown Prosecution Service and New Zealand’s Ministry of Justice. Ratios and the share of all UK women reporting unwanted acts are our own calculations.
Key Takeaways
Choking during sex is now common among young adults: 57% of Australians aged 18 to 35 and 64% of women at one large US university have been choked, compared with 21.4% of US women aged 18 to 60. Women and trans or nonbinary people are choked most, and men are more likely than women to choke a partner.
Most students say they do it because it seems exciting, but consent is often unspoken or missing, and 18.8% of students who had been choked reported an alteration in consciousness. Medical and forensic experts say there’s no safe way to restrict breathing or blood flow, and from November 6, 2026, porn depicting strangulation becomes illegal in England and Wales.
FAQ
How common is choking during sex?
57% of Australians aged 18 to 35 have been choked during sex, and 51% have choked a partner. In the US, 21.4% of women aged 18 to 60 had ever been choked, while 64% of women at one large university had been choked in a 2020 campus survey.
Why do people like being choked?
In US campus surveys, 74% of students who engaged in choking said it seemed exciting and 62% said it seemed kinky or adventurous. 41.1% of students who had been choked found it very pleasurable, while 9.0% didn’t enjoy it at all.
Is choking during sex dangerous?
Yes. Experts say there’s no safe way to restrict breathing or blood flow to the brain. In a 2021 US student survey, 18.8% of those who had been choked reported an alteration in consciousness and 2.6% lost consciousness.
Does porn make people choke their partners?
Porn is linked to choking but hasn’t been shown to cause it. 61.3% of young Australians have seen choking in porn, and 34.8% first learned about it there. Only 13% of students who engaged in choking said they’d seen it in porn and wanted to try it.
Is choking during sex illegal?
Strangulation is a crime in England and Wales, with up to 5 years in prison, and consent to serious harm isn’t a defence. Charges reached 8,545 in 2024–25. From November 6, 2026, possessing porn that depicts strangulation is also illegal there.
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