New census data has revealed that there are around 1.5 million LGB+ people in England and Wales, which equates to 3.2 per cent of the population.
The data from the Office of National Statistics also found that around 43.4 million people (89.4%) identified as straight or heterosexual.
The census question on sexual orientation was a voluntary question asked of those aged 16 years and over. In total, 44.9 million people (92.5% of the population aged 16 years and over) answered the question. The remaining 3.6 million people (7.5%) did not answer the question.
The full statistics were as follows:
- 43.4 million people identified as straight or heterosexual
- 748,000 (1.5%), described themselves as gay or lesbian
- 624,000 (1.3%) described themselves as bisexual
- 165,000 (0.3%) selected “Other sexual orientation”
Of those who selected “Other sexual orientation”, the most common write-in responses included:
- Pansexual (112,000, 0.23%)
- asexual (28,000, 0.06%)
- Queer (15,000, 0.03%)
- Another 10,000 (0.02%) wrote in a different sexual orientation.
The English region with the highest proportion of people who identified with a LGB+ orientation (“gay or lesbian”, “bisexual”, or “other sexual orientation”) was London (4.3%).
In London, 2.2% described their sexual orientation as gay or lesbian, 1.5% described their sexual orientation as bisexual, and 0.5% wrote in a different orientation.
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The local authority with the largest LGB+ population among those aged 16 years and over was Brighton and Hove (10.7%).
Seven of the other local authorities in the top 10 were in London, with the largest LGB+ populations in the City of London (10.3%), Lambeth (8.3%), and Southwark (8.1%).
In Wales, the local authorities with the largest LGB+ populations were Cardiff (5.3%), Ceredigion (4.9%), and Swansea (3.4%).
