Free Shipping on all Orders
Free Shipping on all Orders
Skip to content
August 31, 2026 Olivia Masten

Why Don't Americans Use Bidets?

Americans don't use bidets mainly because of a decades-old stigma: WWII soldiers first encountered bidets in European brothels and came home associating them with sex work, not hygiene, and that association stuck for generations. Cramped bathroom layouts, a dominant toilet paper industry, and general squeamishness about the topic kept the stigma alive long after its origin was forgotten. Only about 6% of American adults have a bidet today — but that number is finally starting to move.

The Historical Reasons Americans Avoided Bidets

Several forces combined to keep bidets out of American bathrooms for most of the 20th century:

  • The WWII brothel association. According to Smithsonian Magazine, citing Atlantic writer Maria Teresa Hart, American soldiers stationed in Europe primarily encountered bidets in brothels, where women reportedly used them as an (ineffective) birth control method. Soldiers returned home associating the fixture with prostitution rather than hygiene.
  • Cramped bathrooms. Smithsonian describes standalone bidets as "an unwieldy and unwelcome addition to already-cramped American bathrooms" — a real space cost, since a traditional bidet needs its own plumbing and floor space next to the toilet.
  • A dominant toilet paper industry. Toilet paper was cheap, already installed in every American bathroom, and backed by a large domestic industry with no incentive to promote an alternative.
  • Cultural squeamishness. Discussing a fixture built around washing after using the toilet ran up against American discomfort with talking about bodily functions at all.

How America Compares to the Rest of the World

The stigma was never global. Bidets appear in roughly 80% of Japanese households, and Italy has legally required a bidet in every home since 1975, according to Smithsonian's reporting. In the U.S., by contrast, colorectal surgeon Dr. Cindy Kin told Smithsonian that fewer than 10% of her patients use one — and a 2022 YouGov poll of 2,000 U.S. adults put nationwide bidet ownership at just 6%. Two countries, same fixture, an 80-point gap — stigma outlasts plumbing every time.

Why That's Starting to Change

The 2020 toilet paper shortage did what decades of hygiene arguments couldn't: it put a bidet in front of people who'd never have shopped for one otherwise. Tushy founder Miki Agrawal told Fox Business the company saw a fivefold revenue increase that year, with 20% year-over-year growth continuing since. BidetKing.com founder James Lin described the market as having "just blew up," with products selling out nationwide.

U.S. search interest in "bidet" backs up that this wasn't a one-season panic. According to Ahrefs keyword data, searches averaged about 98,500 a month in 2018 and spiked past 1,000,000 in March 2020 — then never fully receded:

Year Average monthly US searches for "bidet"
2018 ~98,500
2019 ~109,700
2020 (pandemic year) ~275,900
2022 ~232,500
2024 ~206,500
2026 (through August) ~238,200

Most pandemic habits — banana bread, sweatpants as officewear — faded back out. Searching for bidets didn't. 2026's average is running higher than every year since the spike itself.

A June 2026 survey of 1,008 U.S. adults, conducted by Propeller Insights for Bio Bidet by Bemis, shows what's happening on the ownership side: 97% of current owners report being satisfied, 82% say a bidet has benefited their life, and 42% of people who've never used one say they're now interested in trying it. That last figure is the one that matters most for a country starting from 6% — it's non-owners, not converts, saying they're curious.

What's Still Holding People Back

The same 2026 survey breaks down the actual objections, and none of them are really about the product itself:

  • 25% say they've simply never considered owning one
  • 27% have concerns about installation
  • 20% aren't sure how a bidet actually works

That's an information gap, not a rejection — and it lines up with a 2022 industry survey covered by Supply House Times under the headline "clueless but curious." How Do Bidets Work? and How To Install A Bidet answer exactly those two sticking points — most non-electric attachments install in under 10 minutes without a plumber.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why don't Americans use bidets? Mainly a WWII-era stigma: soldiers first saw bidets in European brothels and came home associating them with sex work rather than hygiene. Cramped bathrooms, an entrenched toilet paper industry, and general squeamishness about the topic kept that stigma alive for decades.

How many Americans actually use a bidet? About 6% of U.S. adults have a bidet at home, according to a 2022 YouGov poll of 2,000 adults — versus roughly 80% of households in Japan.

Is bidet use increasing in the US? Yes. U.S. search interest in "bidet" has stayed roughly double its pre-2020 level every year since the pandemic, and a 2026 survey found 42% of people who've never used a bidet are now interested in trying one.

What's stopping more Americans from switching? Mostly a lack of information, not dissatisfaction: 25% say they've never considered it, 27% worry about installation, and 20% aren't sure how a bidet actually works.

Do other countries use bidets more than the US? Yes, significantly. Bidets appear in about 80% of Japanese households, and Italian law has required one in every home since 1975 — compared to 6% ownership in the U.S.

The Bottom Line

Americans didn't skip bidets because the fixture failed some practical test — they skipped it because of an 80-year-old stigma that had nothing to do with hygiene. That stigma is fading faster than most cultural habits do: search interest, sales, and owner satisfaction have all stayed elevated for six years running, not just one panicked spring. Are Bidets Worth It? covers the actual cost-and-hygiene case, for anyone ready to stop being part of the 94%.

Sources

Next article What Is a Washlet?