How are condoms only 98% effective?

Question

Everywhere I find on the internet says that condoms, when used properly and don’t break, are only 98% effective.

That means if you have sex once a week you’re just as well off as having no protection once a year.

Are 2% of condoms randomly selected to have holes poked in them?

What’s going on?

In: Biology

Answer 1

>That means if you have sex once a week you’re just as well off as having no protection once a year.

That’s not how percentages works. It’s not “if it had worked 98 times, the next won’t work”. You’ve got 2% chance of failure every time, not cumulative.