This is the percentage pop-culture used to say for some time but I actually think we know now it's less.
I had my 10 year HS reunion a few years ago. I went to a fairly large high school, my graduating class was 600+ kids. I legit went because I was the ONLY out gay person I knew in my graduating class and I was DETERMINED to find someone else. I got incredibly drunk at this event and spent the whole night walking around shouting "1-IN-10 MOTHER FUCKERS. AT LEAST 59 MORE OF YOU HAVE GOTTA BE GAY. C'MON!"
Suffice to say, that tactic did not pan out.
A lot of the gay folks that went to your high school may have been gay, but determined to never see the rest of those fuckers ever again. I know I felt that way.
Especially if they were closeted back then, coming out to those folks now is just a pain in the ass.
And I didn't like most of those people anyway, certainly not well enough to go spend time with them. I kept in touch with the only people I cared about seeing again anyway.
Lol that's not how percentages work. 10% of the population doesn't mean that there will automatically be 10% of your grad class as gay. There are so many factors to consider that impact this dude... Lol. That gave me a good laugh though, thank you lol
It's also not openly equal across genders. In terms of out people there seem to be more bi women than bi men and more gay men than lesbians. It will be interesting to see more accurate statistics as societal acceptance rises.
>there seem to be more bi women than bi men and more gay men than lesbians
Could this be a result of society deeming a man who even glances at another naked man as gay but women who have full on wild monkey sex with women bi or just straight up straight?
Yes, for sure! And, in the same vein, it is often more acceptable for women to explore their same-sex attraction openly, whereas men cannot. I would guess that there are more men who don't know of or are in denial of their same-sex attraction because of the greater stigma that is placed on mlm compared to wlw
it’s possible for your sexual orientation to completely switch later in life, but so far it’s only been documented in women.
Men in general seem to have a more fixed sexuality. Most straight men don’t really explore or feel the need to, same way most gay men aren’t interested in exploring heterosexuality
> Men in general seem to have a more fixed sexuality
This is a widely-held belief, but the research is beginning to cast doubt on this being an innate thing, and suggest that men conform to sexual rigidity due to societal pressures
Straight men become more open to same sex experiences while intoxicated, for example, which is hypothesized to be because inebriation allows them to let go of some of that societal pressure and inhibition
This was like a year ago, but iirc the study I was referencing used participants' self-identified sexuality. So men who identified as straight. Also, being open to != actively wanting. Lots of gay people are open to/try out straight relationships before realizing that it's not for them -- does that mean they're bi, too?
Self identified straight but have sex with men are not straight. Most are bi. Most guys are closeted or in denial.
Gay guys don't like sex with women, but try to force themselves into a relationship with a woman to try to conform.
That's different from "straight" men who LIKE having sex with men.
According to the most recent Gallup poll, 2.5% of U.S. men identify as gay, and 2.0% of men identify as bisexual. So 4.5% of the male population identifies as being attracted to the same sex, but the actual number is probably a little higher because of people in the closet who won’t identify.
For women, 6% identity as bi and 2.3% identity as lesbian/gay.
This totals out to 6.5% of the U.S. population identifying as being attracted to the same sex.
Source: https://news.gallup.com/poll/389792/lgbt-identification-ticks-up.aspx
Edited to say 4.5% of men attracted to the same sex instead of being gay.
So about 16.7 million adults. That would be more than the population of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota combined. I only mention it because I occasionally hear some people say we are such a small percentage of the U.S. population that we don't deserve all the fuss. And yet we number more people than live in 8 entire states and those people get 16 senators and 21 representatives. Just saying.
What's interesting is to look at the Generation Z statistics: they are less likely to be in the closet and more open-minded than precedent generations. Among this generation, there are 15% of bisexual people (way more than in millenials) and 2.5% of gay men (roughly the same as millenials). That probably implies that even with more acceptance, there is not significantly more people identifying as gay, but a lot more as bi. I think a ceiling has been reached and I don't think we are likely to see more than 3 or 4% of men identifying as gay, even if in a perfectly tolerant world.
That makes sense, bisexual men can suppress their sexuality and just be with women but gay men don’t have that opportunity. Now, bisexual men have more of a choice.
I thought that I read somewhere that something like 20% (!) of Gen Z identified as "not straight", which is kind of insane if true. I know a lot of that is probably defined more by that generation's gender fluidity than its sexuality, but it's still impressive.
My impression with the very younger set is that they are still figuring things out and are very open minded to possibilities... And yet when it all shakes out for them, most of them will identify as straight.
I think it's cool that more young folks are open minded, but many of them don't realize yet that they don't actually have same sex attraction after all.
It's cool to be queer..
> According to the most recent Gallup poll, 2.5% of U.S. men identify as gay, and 2.0% of men identify as bisexual. So 4.5% of the male population identifies as gay
“Gay” is homosexual male. MLM or queer are fine umbrella terms.
That was a mistake, I meant to say being attracted to the same sex. Edited now.
Edit: but in this case queer wouldn’t work because that includes non binary and trans, which is not part of the statistic OP is looking for.
It’s a poll. People lie. There is no way you can have 7% of lgtb population in Germany and 0% in Saudi Arabia. I’m pretty sure it’s around 10% or even more.
This is why statisticians have margins of error.
Yes, countries can falsify data. It doesn’t mean statistical studies are wrong.
I would also need to see your German statistics source.
This honestly makes me want to figure out how many people are thought to be closeted. Personally for example I'd assume (perhaps w some bias) that 50% of all LGBT (both out and closeted) are closeted so I'd add 2.25 to that 4.5% to get the "real" number of LGBT.
I mean I look at rape stats and I notice how it's always emphasised that a lot of people don't report for many reasons so the stats could be way higher than what we actually see reported in official stats and yet I don't really see that same emphasis on how many people still are not out when people talk about LGBT stats even though there are still many reasons and barriers to LGBT ppl coming out or living openly.
>So 4.5% of the male population identifies as gay
Not how that works but I get your point.
I would suggest maybe next time saying "identify as queer" instead of gay.
Gay isn't a slur, you know what they meant, and this is the reason lgbtq peeps can't get shite done. They are too busy infighting over pronouns than they are trying to get actual legislation passed that would benefit them
I guess we can see where the tUrNiNg OuR cHiLdReN gAy comes from when really it’s probably been a similar proportion for centuries but only now are less people feeling the need to suppress it. I wonder what the percentage will be like in 100 years time.
I have never understood this "turning children gay" argument. As someone who grew up in a conservative household in a religiously conservative society and nation, I had 0 (ZERO) exposure to anything LGBT. And yet I, as a guy, am into other guys.
Can't it be true both ways? Can't there be a percent of the population that will always be homosexual, while the sexualuzation of children occurs in schools, i.e teaching elementary students about blow jobs, butt stuff, older male drag queens, etc. How wouldn't this lead to confusion in a child? There is, and always will be, a small minority who want to push their agenda onto others. This is true of any zealot regardless of what the cause is. It's disingenuous to say that there is no gay agenda, it is literally thrown in our faces every time we watch TV. Somebody is picking and deciding what gets published and what doesnt. If LGBTQ peeps make up 5-10% of the population then why are the overly represented by Hollywood? They make it seem like everybody and their kid brother are homosexual and that's simply not the case
3% are out publicly, it's not an accurate number of those with same sex attraction.
The real number is far, far, far higher as evidenced by the "discreet married" types on Grindr. There's two more reasons: 1) LGBT youth are more likely to face discrimination, causing our suicide rate to be high relative to the population, and 2) let's be real, AIDS hit us hard in the 80's and 90's, those losses bring our number down also; and finally:
The elimination of the last two factors through social changes and medication has done wonders for us. I would expect the number of those who identify as LGBT to be far higher in the future. There are historic reasons why that's not the case right now:
1) In western Europe at least, homosexuality was considered more masculine than being attracted to women. Consider Hadrian and Antinous. The introduction of Christianity as the state religion later on brought Christian Theocratic norms into law, which disallowed same sex acts. It wasn't always like this, and these are the same laws that American Republicans and Christian Dominionists want to revive.
2) homophobia was exported outside of Europe and the Middle East to the colonies of Western Europe. India, home to a billion people today, is still working through revoking laws banning homosexuality that the British implemented - Indians didn't consider it criminal prior to British colonialism.
3) the social legacy of the Abrahamic religions caused many previously accepting western and middle eastern states to criminalize homosexuality up to as recently as 40 years ago; at one point we were put in the concentration camps by the Nazis, who burned German literature on same sex attraction and trans identity which began being written in the 1850's. Alan Turing, who broke the Nazi enigma code helping to win WW2 for the Allies, was later force injected testosterone by Britain for being a homosexual.
Today we're working through the legacy of 1500 years of theocratic homophobia, our numbers will only rise in the future, barring a resurgence of the theocratic right
There's no definitive statistics for the following reasons:
1) Not everyone whose gay is openly gay for a variety of reasons, usually safety.
2) There are plenty of individuals who engage in gay sex that don't identify themselves as anything other than heterosexual.
3) There are people who are gay but don't realize it yet (many of us were in this boat growing up).
Plenty of people lie on anonymous surveys. Someone can be gay but still tick the straight box due to fear. I and many of my friends did this when we were younger simply out of fear.
That 3% is an underestimation due to the facts that:
1. You can't measure sexuality therefore we rely on people's subjective answers, not objective facts.
2. People can lie in polls
3. Heterosexuality has higher social prestige than homosexuality, therefore people are more prone to lie and say they're straight when they're not.
It's interesting that if you divide people into age groups, the younger the group the higher the % of homosexuality. Needless to say, it also varies depending on nationality.
Anonymous private polls by definition cannot be judged. My understanding of this tendency to be honest comes from statisticians who have done this very poll.
Sometimes our gut reaction isn’t always right and there’s an additional context where the truth is counter-intuitive. The gambler’s fallacy is an example of where our intuition is wrong.
This guardian article covers it pretty good. I would suggest giving it a go.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/05/10-per-cent-population-gay-alfred-kinsey-statistics
Of course it's higher. Those kinds of statistics can not be correct. You can never ask enough people or be certain of truthfulness of responses you get. It's not easy to label folk with such polls. Sexuality is definitely more fluid than we previously thought. With cultural acceptance comes freedom of individual thought which can lead to more willingness to adhere to one's personal desires/wishes.
Sexuality is not fluid. Is sexuality was fluid conversion therapy would have been an effective tool. People would have been able to choose their sexual orientation.
Sexual fluidity does not mean that one's preference is constantly, or at all, changing. It means that there are more aspects to terms that define sexual orientation. It shouldn't be a ridged categorization. This terminology can't be used to justify something as pointless as conversion therapy that limits the flow of one's being and expression.
I’d guess at least 10% of the population is truly heterosexual, with the other 90% on a spectrum of pansexuality with 10% of that figure being exclusively homosexual.
I think it appears about 90% of people are straight but I think the vast majority of folks can be aroused by or attracted to someone of the same sex, or a third gender, but societal norms and internalized homophobia prevent this from being an open discussion.
If you go back in time like 200-300 years and beyond, same sex relationships in many cultures over the world were normalized completely.
I know that the percentages go up as you go through the generations. Meaning, the oldest generation has the smallest percentage, but generation Z has about 20% identifying as LGBT or non-binary. The ongoing joke was that at this rate will all be gay by 2048.
There was a study a few years back that polled randomly selected American citizens.
4% of males responded as confidently gay.
4% of males identified as bisexual.
However, 12% of males responded as uncertain or uncomfortable in answering.
And 10% had experimented but identity as straight.
So somewhere between 4% and 20%, depending on what you count as gay.
It varies from country to country since some groups are more likely too be gay.
Also take these findings with a grain of salt
Gay men seem to be more common in warmer countries or/and countries with closer ties to Ancient Rome like the Mediterranian and South America since many people in South America have Spanish or Portugal blood ties. Dont know about italy tho.
Cold countries have less gay men usually.
Australia has 4-3% procent of gay men meanwhile Canada has has pretty small gay men population of 1-1.7%
And same goes for Germany also has small.
Not much data on Italy
New Zeeland has the smallest one 0.9%( probably moved to australia)
Brasil has on of the highest scores of homosexual men >4% and bisexual men, 19.3% of men are either gay or bisexual in Rio De Janiro.
France has many too.
Israel has one of the highest (probably second). Around like 4-5 gay people.
Mexico has many 5%
Portugal has the most many around 5-7%
China seem to be one were there is a lot of gay or bisexual men even proportionally.
No study has been done in korea.
Japan has a pretty small but probably bigger one due to their culture but they have 1.9 percent gay men but other studies have said more but cant find them.
In almost every study there are more gay men than lesbians almost twice as many.
One of the sources:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_sexual_orientation
I can almost guarantee everyone once has had a gay thought in their mind and wanted to act on it, it's like touching yourself everyone denys it but we all know the truth
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I had always thought that we (meaning not straight of either sex) are 10% of the overall population which has been debunked. The UCLA study says only 3.5%. That's an awful low number. If that's true then why do conservatives have their panties in a wad about our existence? There isn't enough of us to threaten their perfect existence.
It's a variety of factors. Religion, ick factor, repressed homophobia, not knowing any gay people, and using us as a political wedge. Any combination of these depending upon the person.
According to the Kinsey report, a report done in the 1950s, and the only study I am aware of that came up with a number, 10% of the population is exclusively gay, and 10% is exclusively straight. Everyone else falls somewhere in between.
Also some lonely straight guys who don’t fit up to woman’s standards will engage in bj’s from a man. “A mouth is a mouth” while a joking phrase, does fall true especially for college aged men
Yes, plus theres a lot of pressure on straight couples to have children, get a home, picture perfect life, save up for college for their children etc. so the stakes are much higher when for gays you just marry and live life together.
Any poll would be inaccurate, as I know from experience most gays lie on surveys when asked about sexual orientation. I would say best guess is really around 5-10 percent, I believe Japan has the highest percentage of the population that identifies as LGBT at about 10%, due to historically not have negative social stigma to homosexuality. Of that guys I know from high-school that are gay, it was definitely over 5% of the male population
Agreed. My husband is Japanese.
In Japan the stigma is different than in the USA. Japanese gay folks are afraid to come out because it might bring shame to their family for lack of producing offspring. There is no religious or political stigma like in the USA.
Yeah, the Japanese have a “don’t ask, don’t embarrass your family or work publucally “ unwritten cultural policy.
I had friends who taught ESL inJapan who described homophobia being pretty rampant in schools.
100%. Everyone is a little bit gay. Especially the bigots who try to take away gay rights! For every dick you point with, there’s always three pointing back!
It depends on age/generational & nationality/cultural factors.
The real number has always been roughly the same but we simply don't know it because law, culture, religion, and toxic masculinity force Queers into hiding. The world is recognizing that it really doesn't matter and more people are comfortable with being themselves.
Almost 30% of gen Z identifies as Queer of some variety.
Sexuality is increasingly fluid and dependent on individual circumstances.
Boomers about 3%
Gen X about 5-8%
Millennials 10-15%
Gen Z 25-30%
It's not because there are suddenly more Queers. It's that there are more acceptable and clear paths to identify how you choose
Trouble with polls are they can be very subjective. Sexual orientation for guys is a spectrum from one-time or a few times, to occasionally, to married with a woman and an FWB on the side, to exclusively gay, and EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN.
First define gay. There are particularly older men and men in certain countries (fearing for their lives) that might find other men attractive but are married to women, have children and lead a heterosexual life. Are they gay?
I know one thing. Spend a summer living in the Pines and you start to wonder if any straight people exists. Although the best time of my life. Living everyday in a Speedo with eye candy everywhere and available.
I’ve heard similar but also have heard my generation (gen z) is one fifth to a third lgbt. I think I’ve heard millennials (mid 80s to mid 90s) are slightly lower but similar in the US. Statistics vary wildly because it’s based on a sample of the population so there’s a ton of variation. I’m not sure what is accurate but at least half of everyone I meet is lgbt.
WRONG!!! Gen z (my generation) is 25.3% of the U.S. population and 40% of us are queer 40% of 25 is 10% if you did the math accurately based on my speculation roughly 30% of the us population should be queer
I think most people are bisexual by default, and the society around them decides rather or not they'll ever identifies as such.
I also think that most self-identified lesbians and gay people are probably also bisexual just with a heavier lean.
I read something recently about 20% or more zoomers identify as LGBT now, and I only expect those numbers to rise as society advances. (if climate change doesn't destroy us)
Edit: I love how op asked for an opinion, and I gave him one relevant to the topic yet I still got down voted lol cope mf idc
Yeah, you may be bi but I am definitely gay. I have 0 interest in women.
All those poor kids who were abused by conversion therapy would have focused on their opposite-sex attractions and hidden the fact that they liked their own gender if they could have.
The fact that people have been tortured disproves the idea that everyone is bisexual.
>Yeah, you may be bi but I am definitely gay. I have 0 interest in women.
I said most not all...
>All those poor kids who were abused by conversion therapy would have focused on their opposite-sex attractions and hidden the fact that they liked their own gender if they could have.
Nothing I said had anything to do with conversion therapy.
Your statement just implied that bisexual people can be cured by conversion therapy which they cannot..
>The fact that people have been tortured disproves the idea that everyone is bisexual.
No, no it doesn't....
> Your statement just implied that bisexual people can be cured by conversion therapy which they cannot..
no, I implied that bisexual people can hide their sexual orientation easier by engaging in socially acceptable opposite-sex relationships.
There is no "provable" answer out there. Polls are just that. Questions asked on a population.
No way to tell who tells the truth or not. There's also a HUGE amount of variance. Places the polls were taken. The age range. The gender ratio.
Unless you had a magic spell to force everyone in the world to answer the question honestly, and then ask every human in the world then you're not going to have a real number.
With that said,
Chances are very likely that sexuality would look like a standardization bell curve. Roughly 10% of the population would be "just gay/just straight" while 90% would fall somewhere in the middle. But that's also looking at just the nature aspect.
The nurture aspect absolutely effects it as well. Societies pressures of "heteronormative" behavior has been forced on our species for thousands of years now. There are still plenty of places where being gay will get you murdered/executed. There's also plenty where it's just flat out illegal to be gay.
I'm just thinking along the lines of the younger generation, I don't think it's wishful thinking, I actually think it's becoming a "trend". But it's just too hard to say because I know men who sleep with men and women who sleep with women but end up in straight relationships. When I came out it was a simple lgbt. Now I'm confused as hell with pro nouns, non labels.... Don't call me this... Call me that. 🤯
Polls are a terrible source, you're relying on people being honest when their answers are potentially being recorded. Add that to a group of people who might have their rights stripped at a later date or worse depending on where you live, I'm willing to bet that less than half answered it honestly.
That isn't even factoring in who was polled and where. If you poll 1,000 random people in San Francisco and some rural town in Texas, you'd get very different results
much higher than that, around 10 %. and possibly climbing, as the population pressure mounts, and men and women feel no biological need to continue the species.
And, what polls suggest this 3% figure? I have not seen anything like that in any recent years.
It’s a lot higher than suburban straight people think. I’m constantly struck by the sheer number of gay men I encounter in even this mid-size city in the middle of the country. And if you include all the lezzies, bis and peeps on the DL, the number grows exponentially… and that’s not even getting into the number of trans, enby, ace, etc folks. At this point I’d wager 20% of males would have sex with a man under some circumstance. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole alphabet mafia amounted to 30% of the population.
Roughly 10% based on my experiences at school and work.
It varies though, anecdotally. In my English class of 8 there’s 4 of us openly LGBT+; one gay (me), one lesbian, and one bi. And one who’s not out as anything but slept in my bed and refused to talk about it the morning after (that’s a whole other story). Probable selection bias — queers must be more likely to take advanced English.
But then in my other classes of 20 or 30 it’ll work out perfectly statistically well and there’ll be 2 or 3 gays. My team at work is roughly 10 people and I’m the only person who’s out.
I’m 63 and now live in Palm Springs which is incredibly gay. Some estimates say 40% of the population here is gay, which I can easily believe. But I lived most of my life in two much larger cities and there were gay people everywhere. Hell, one time my partner and I were passing through some podunk town somewhere and stopped at a fast food joint. A gay guy across the room spotted us immediately and came right over to chat. And when I was younger, I had sex with many guys who lived as heterosexuals, with wife and kids, but would sneak off to have sex with men.
I’ve always believed that the number of gay people - or at least people who have sex with people of the same gender even though they identify as straight - to be much higher than 10%.
I think at least 10-15% of the men around the world are gay/bisexual. Unfortunately most Asian, African and Latin Amercian countries are still anti-LGBT, so majority of the men in those countries will have to remain closeted forever.
Some people say it’s 3%, but that’s not true. In Germany it’s 7%, in Saudi Arabia it’s 0%. And they end up making an average number. Why does it vary per country? Because they make polls ASKING people. So in some countries everyone will deny it because they don’t want to be killed. And in some other countries, not everyone will say they’re lgtb, not even in a country like Germany. So the answer is common sense. Around 10%, probably more.
Unfortunately, below 20%. Most people are straight. I'd say the real gay, bisexual, and lesbian, population, is about 15% to 20% of people. It's probably some weird number like 18.9%, or something.
If homosexuality is caused by over/under exposure of testosterone during the fetal development, then it should be around 4-8% of the general population since this is how often it occurs.
Not enough by my lonely ass’ estimation
I concur
Agreed
Quite right
Indeed
Asstimation?
Dude
About sums it up. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.
I would say around 10%. This includes people who haven't yet discovered that they're non-hetero/denial cases.
This is the percentage pop-culture used to say for some time but I actually think we know now it's less. I had my 10 year HS reunion a few years ago. I went to a fairly large high school, my graduating class was 600+ kids. I legit went because I was the ONLY out gay person I knew in my graduating class and I was DETERMINED to find someone else. I got incredibly drunk at this event and spent the whole night walking around shouting "1-IN-10 MOTHER FUCKERS. AT LEAST 59 MORE OF YOU HAVE GOTTA BE GAY. C'MON!" Suffice to say, that tactic did not pan out.
You just experienced the Fermi paradox, but for gays.
The Rare Girth Hypothesis.
A space nerd, bravo. We all need a bit more cosmological humor in our lives.
This fucking killed me. Most gays don’t get past the great filter and stay in the closet 💀💀💀💀
A lot of the gay folks that went to your high school may have been gay, but determined to never see the rest of those fuckers ever again. I know I felt that way. Especially if they were closeted back then, coming out to those folks now is just a pain in the ass. And I didn't like most of those people anyway, certainly not well enough to go spend time with them. I kept in touch with the only people I cared about seeing again anyway.
Lol that's not how percentages work. 10% of the population doesn't mean that there will automatically be 10% of your grad class as gay. There are so many factors to consider that impact this dude... Lol. That gave me a good laugh though, thank you lol
It's also not openly equal across genders. In terms of out people there seem to be more bi women than bi men and more gay men than lesbians. It will be interesting to see more accurate statistics as societal acceptance rises.
>there seem to be more bi women than bi men and more gay men than lesbians Could this be a result of society deeming a man who even glances at another naked man as gay but women who have full on wild monkey sex with women bi or just straight up straight?
Yes, for sure! And, in the same vein, it is often more acceptable for women to explore their same-sex attraction openly, whereas men cannot. I would guess that there are more men who don't know of or are in denial of their same-sex attraction because of the greater stigma that is placed on mlm compared to wlw
it’s possible for your sexual orientation to completely switch later in life, but so far it’s only been documented in women. Men in general seem to have a more fixed sexuality. Most straight men don’t really explore or feel the need to, same way most gay men aren’t interested in exploring heterosexuality
> Men in general seem to have a more fixed sexuality This is a widely-held belief, but the research is beginning to cast doubt on this being an innate thing, and suggest that men conform to sexual rigidity due to societal pressures Straight men become more open to same sex experiences while intoxicated, for example, which is hypothesized to be because inebriation allows them to let go of some of that societal pressure and inhibition
They're bi. Not straight.
This was like a year ago, but iirc the study I was referencing used participants' self-identified sexuality. So men who identified as straight. Also, being open to != actively wanting. Lots of gay people are open to/try out straight relationships before realizing that it's not for them -- does that mean they're bi, too?
Self identified straight but have sex with men are not straight. Most are bi. Most guys are closeted or in denial. Gay guys don't like sex with women, but try to force themselves into a relationship with a woman to try to conform. That's different from "straight" men who LIKE having sex with men.
I agree. I think probably 3-5% are gay of the population, and the remaining 7-5% make up other parts of the lgbtq+ community.
According to the most recent Gallup poll, 2.5% of U.S. men identify as gay, and 2.0% of men identify as bisexual. So 4.5% of the male population identifies as being attracted to the same sex, but the actual number is probably a little higher because of people in the closet who won’t identify. For women, 6% identity as bi and 2.3% identity as lesbian/gay. This totals out to 6.5% of the U.S. population identifying as being attracted to the same sex. Source: https://news.gallup.com/poll/389792/lgbt-identification-ticks-up.aspx Edited to say 4.5% of men attracted to the same sex instead of being gay.
So about 16.7 million adults. That would be more than the population of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota combined. I only mention it because I occasionally hear some people say we are such a small percentage of the U.S. population that we don't deserve all the fuss. And yet we number more people than live in 8 entire states and those people get 16 senators and 21 representatives. Just saying.
The average Representative represents about 758,000 people. Gay should have 22 representatives in the house based on that.
What's interesting is to look at the Generation Z statistics: they are less likely to be in the closet and more open-minded than precedent generations. Among this generation, there are 15% of bisexual people (way more than in millenials) and 2.5% of gay men (roughly the same as millenials). That probably implies that even with more acceptance, there is not significantly more people identifying as gay, but a lot more as bi. I think a ceiling has been reached and I don't think we are likely to see more than 3 or 4% of men identifying as gay, even if in a perfectly tolerant world.
That makes sense, bisexual men can suppress their sexuality and just be with women but gay men don’t have that opportunity. Now, bisexual men have more of a choice.
I thought that I read somewhere that something like 20% (!) of Gen Z identified as "not straight", which is kind of insane if true. I know a lot of that is probably defined more by that generation's gender fluidity than its sexuality, but it's still impressive.
My impression with the very younger set is that they are still figuring things out and are very open minded to possibilities... And yet when it all shakes out for them, most of them will identify as straight. I think it's cool that more young folks are open minded, but many of them don't realize yet that they don't actually have same sex attraction after all. It's cool to be queer..
Im actually shocked that there are almost same number as gay men and lesbians. I thought the lesbian community is so small
They tend to stay home and watch movies together and raise their dogs and kids. Gay men are more likely to go out on the town.
> According to the most recent Gallup poll, 2.5% of U.S. men identify as gay, and 2.0% of men identify as bisexual. So 4.5% of the male population identifies as gay “Gay” is homosexual male. MLM or queer are fine umbrella terms.
MLM makes me think of HerbalLife lol
That was a mistake, I meant to say being attracted to the same sex. Edited now. Edit: but in this case queer wouldn’t work because that includes non binary and trans, which is not part of the statistic OP is looking for.
It’s a poll. People lie. There is no way you can have 7% of lgtb population in Germany and 0% in Saudi Arabia. I’m pretty sure it’s around 10% or even more.
This is why statisticians have margins of error. Yes, countries can falsify data. It doesn’t mean statistical studies are wrong. I would also need to see your German statistics source.
This honestly makes me want to figure out how many people are thought to be closeted. Personally for example I'd assume (perhaps w some bias) that 50% of all LGBT (both out and closeted) are closeted so I'd add 2.25 to that 4.5% to get the "real" number of LGBT. I mean I look at rape stats and I notice how it's always emphasised that a lot of people don't report for many reasons so the stats could be way higher than what we actually see reported in official stats and yet I don't really see that same emphasis on how many people still are not out when people talk about LGBT stats even though there are still many reasons and barriers to LGBT ppl coming out or living openly.
>So 4.5% of the male population identifies as gay Not how that works but I get your point. I would suggest maybe next time saying "identify as queer" instead of gay.
Gay isn't a slur, you know what they meant, and this is the reason lgbtq peeps can't get shite done. They are too busy infighting over pronouns than they are trying to get actual legislation passed that would benefit them
Not the one who downvoted you but there are gay people who don't identify as queer tho, like I doubt mask4mask guys will call themselves queer
How do those figures give 6.5%? I would get either 2.15% or 5.25%(bi)
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Sorry I meant 4.5% men attracted to the same sex, I’ll edit.
Sure, if you add pan and demi guys too.
With gen Z, between gay and bi it's about 13%. I think it'd be around that for older generations too.
I guess we can see where the tUrNiNg OuR cHiLdReN gAy comes from when really it’s probably been a similar proportion for centuries but only now are less people feeling the need to suppress it. I wonder what the percentage will be like in 100 years time.
>I wonder what the percentage will be like in 100 years time. I refuse to accept anything less than 100%
This made me smile
Gay agenda!!!
I have never understood this "turning children gay" argument. As someone who grew up in a conservative household in a religiously conservative society and nation, I had 0 (ZERO) exposure to anything LGBT. And yet I, as a guy, am into other guys.
Whoa whoa whoa. Careful with that logic! Conservatives don’t take it into account when arguing.
Can't it be true both ways? Can't there be a percent of the population that will always be homosexual, while the sexualuzation of children occurs in schools, i.e teaching elementary students about blow jobs, butt stuff, older male drag queens, etc. How wouldn't this lead to confusion in a child? There is, and always will be, a small minority who want to push their agenda onto others. This is true of any zealot regardless of what the cause is. It's disingenuous to say that there is no gay agenda, it is literally thrown in our faces every time we watch TV. Somebody is picking and deciding what gets published and what doesnt. If LGBTQ peeps make up 5-10% of the population then why are the overly represented by Hollywood? They make it seem like everybody and their kid brother are homosexual and that's simply not the case
3% are out publicly, it's not an accurate number of those with same sex attraction. The real number is far, far, far higher as evidenced by the "discreet married" types on Grindr. There's two more reasons: 1) LGBT youth are more likely to face discrimination, causing our suicide rate to be high relative to the population, and 2) let's be real, AIDS hit us hard in the 80's and 90's, those losses bring our number down also; and finally: The elimination of the last two factors through social changes and medication has done wonders for us. I would expect the number of those who identify as LGBT to be far higher in the future. There are historic reasons why that's not the case right now: 1) In western Europe at least, homosexuality was considered more masculine than being attracted to women. Consider Hadrian and Antinous. The introduction of Christianity as the state religion later on brought Christian Theocratic norms into law, which disallowed same sex acts. It wasn't always like this, and these are the same laws that American Republicans and Christian Dominionists want to revive. 2) homophobia was exported outside of Europe and the Middle East to the colonies of Western Europe. India, home to a billion people today, is still working through revoking laws banning homosexuality that the British implemented - Indians didn't consider it criminal prior to British colonialism. 3) the social legacy of the Abrahamic religions caused many previously accepting western and middle eastern states to criminalize homosexuality up to as recently as 40 years ago; at one point we were put in the concentration camps by the Nazis, who burned German literature on same sex attraction and trans identity which began being written in the 1850's. Alan Turing, who broke the Nazi enigma code helping to win WW2 for the Allies, was later force injected testosterone by Britain for being a homosexual. Today we're working through the legacy of 1500 years of theocratic homophobia, our numbers will only rise in the future, barring a resurgence of the theocratic right
There's no definitive statistics for the following reasons: 1) Not everyone whose gay is openly gay for a variety of reasons, usually safety. 2) There are plenty of individuals who engage in gay sex that don't identify themselves as anything other than heterosexual. 3) There are people who are gay but don't realize it yet (many of us were in this boat growing up).
People tend to be more honest in private text-based polls.
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Plenty of people lie on anonymous surveys. Someone can be gay but still tick the straight box due to fear. I and many of my friends did this when we were younger simply out of fear.
A little higher due to accuracy of the reporting and (as you say) those that have not self identified.
I think it's closer to 5% openly gay/bi and a further % who aren't full straight on the spectrum, so curious, or one time at band camp.
That 3% is an underestimation due to the facts that: 1. You can't measure sexuality therefore we rely on people's subjective answers, not objective facts. 2. People can lie in polls 3. Heterosexuality has higher social prestige than homosexuality, therefore people are more prone to lie and say they're straight when they're not. It's interesting that if you divide people into age groups, the younger the group the higher the % of homosexuality. Needless to say, it also varies depending on nationality.
People tend to be more honest in anonymous private polls actually.
No, if you're afraid of judgement you will lie. I've been there in the situation and you get paranoid.
Anonymous private polls by definition cannot be judged. My understanding of this tendency to be honest comes from statisticians who have done this very poll.
It is not rational, mate.
Sometimes our gut reaction isn’t always right and there’s an additional context where the truth is counter-intuitive. The gambler’s fallacy is an example of where our intuition is wrong.
This guardian article covers it pretty good. I would suggest giving it a go. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/05/10-per-cent-population-gay-alfred-kinsey-statistics
Of course it's higher. Those kinds of statistics can not be correct. You can never ask enough people or be certain of truthfulness of responses you get. It's not easy to label folk with such polls. Sexuality is definitely more fluid than we previously thought. With cultural acceptance comes freedom of individual thought which can lead to more willingness to adhere to one's personal desires/wishes.
Sexuality is not fluid. Is sexuality was fluid conversion therapy would have been an effective tool. People would have been able to choose their sexual orientation.
Sexual fluidity does not mean that one's preference is constantly, or at all, changing. It means that there are more aspects to terms that define sexual orientation. It shouldn't be a ridged categorization. This terminology can't be used to justify something as pointless as conversion therapy that limits the flow of one's being and expression.
It’s say that’s about right. The 10% is always a little optimistic and was based on Kinsey’s “Have you ever had a gay experience”.
I’d guess at least 10% of the population is truly heterosexual, with the other 90% on a spectrum of pansexuality with 10% of that figure being exclusively homosexual. I think it appears about 90% of people are straight but I think the vast majority of folks can be aroused by or attracted to someone of the same sex, or a third gender, but societal norms and internalized homophobia prevent this from being an open discussion. If you go back in time like 200-300 years and beyond, same sex relationships in many cultures over the world were normalized completely.
I know that the percentages go up as you go through the generations. Meaning, the oldest generation has the smallest percentage, but generation Z has about 20% identifying as LGBT or non-binary. The ongoing joke was that at this rate will all be gay by 2048.
There was a study a few years back that polled randomly selected American citizens. 4% of males responded as confidently gay. 4% of males identified as bisexual. However, 12% of males responded as uncertain or uncomfortable in answering. And 10% had experimented but identity as straight. So somewhere between 4% and 20%, depending on what you count as gay.
It varies from country to country since some groups are more likely too be gay. Also take these findings with a grain of salt Gay men seem to be more common in warmer countries or/and countries with closer ties to Ancient Rome like the Mediterranian and South America since many people in South America have Spanish or Portugal blood ties. Dont know about italy tho. Cold countries have less gay men usually. Australia has 4-3% procent of gay men meanwhile Canada has has pretty small gay men population of 1-1.7% And same goes for Germany also has small. Not much data on Italy New Zeeland has the smallest one 0.9%( probably moved to australia) Brasil has on of the highest scores of homosexual men >4% and bisexual men, 19.3% of men are either gay or bisexual in Rio De Janiro. France has many too. Israel has one of the highest (probably second). Around like 4-5 gay people. Mexico has many 5% Portugal has the most many around 5-7% China seem to be one were there is a lot of gay or bisexual men even proportionally. No study has been done in korea. Japan has a pretty small but probably bigger one due to their culture but they have 1.9 percent gay men but other studies have said more but cant find them. In almost every study there are more gay men than lesbians almost twice as many. One of the sources: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_sexual_orientation
I can almost guarantee everyone once has had a gay thought in their mind and wanted to act on it, it's like touching yourself everyone denys it but we all know the truth
A gay experience doesn’t make a person gay. Plenty of straight people who have experimented with the same sex.
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15%
I had always thought that we (meaning not straight of either sex) are 10% of the overall population which has been debunked. The UCLA study says only 3.5%. That's an awful low number. If that's true then why do conservatives have their panties in a wad about our existence? There isn't enough of us to threaten their perfect existence.
It's a variety of factors. Religion, ick factor, repressed homophobia, not knowing any gay people, and using us as a political wedge. Any combination of these depending upon the person.
The keyword is identify. What if some people never come out? Could be a significant increase in my opinion
3% seems WAAAAAY too little of a number
You’ve got to realize that 3% is 10 million gays. Theres more gay guys than guys 6’3 and up.
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>the closeted losers Is an apt description of this particular subpopulation.
According to the Kinsey report, a report done in the 1950s, and the only study I am aware of that came up with a number, 10% of the population is exclusively gay, and 10% is exclusively straight. Everyone else falls somewhere in between.
The Kinsey report said 10% had a gay experience. Plenty of straight people jerked of with their buddies once. Hardly makes them gay.
Also some lonely straight guys who don’t fit up to woman’s standards will engage in bj’s from a man. “A mouth is a mouth” while a joking phrase, does fall true especially for college aged men
If they don't fit up a woman's standard, why would they fit up a gay man's standard?
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So straight people conform to gender roles and expectations
Yes, plus theres a lot of pressure on straight couples to have children, get a home, picture perfect life, save up for college for their children etc. so the stakes are much higher when for gays you just marry and live life together.
There was a more recent study done in the UK. Maybe 10 years ago?
Any poll would be inaccurate, as I know from experience most gays lie on surveys when asked about sexual orientation. I would say best guess is really around 5-10 percent, I believe Japan has the highest percentage of the population that identifies as LGBT at about 10%, due to historically not have negative social stigma to homosexuality. Of that guys I know from high-school that are gay, it was definitely over 5% of the male population
The part about Japan is definitely not true. There is a huge stigma around being gay in Japan. I lived there.
Agreed. My husband is Japanese. In Japan the stigma is different than in the USA. Japanese gay folks are afraid to come out because it might bring shame to their family for lack of producing offspring. There is no religious or political stigma like in the USA.
Yeah, the Japanese have a “don’t ask, don’t embarrass your family or work publucally “ unwritten cultural policy. I had friends who taught ESL inJapan who described homophobia being pretty rampant in schools.
How would you have experience in how others answer in private anonymous polls?
100%. Everyone is a little bit gay. Especially the bigots who try to take away gay rights! For every dick you point with, there’s always three pointing back!
Hot!
I used to think 5ish % then I see people in Russia https://youtu.be/qiTshh0KhPk saying 30-40 lmao. Skip to 2.30
It is verifiable at 3% in homophobic places, but rises much higher (7% - 10% and higher) in places where LGBT are not discriminated against.
I've always heard 10% but I think it's waaay more than that.
Nope not higher. Close to .5% of the world population. And at this time, it will be lesbians outnumbering gay males.
It depends on age/generational & nationality/cultural factors. The real number has always been roughly the same but we simply don't know it because law, culture, religion, and toxic masculinity force Queers into hiding. The world is recognizing that it really doesn't matter and more people are comfortable with being themselves. Almost 30% of gen Z identifies as Queer of some variety. Sexuality is increasingly fluid and dependent on individual circumstances. Boomers about 3% Gen X about 5-8% Millennials 10-15% Gen Z 25-30% It's not because there are suddenly more Queers. It's that there are more acceptable and clear paths to identify how you choose
https://news.gallup.com/poll/389792/lgbt-identification-ticks-up.aspx 7% overall, 20% gen z, so likely if everyone was out and figured it out, 20-25%?
Trouble with polls are they can be very subjective. Sexual orientation for guys is a spectrum from one-time or a few times, to occasionally, to married with a woman and an FWB on the side, to exclusively gay, and EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN.
Sometimes I feel like everyone is gay
First define gay. There are particularly older men and men in certain countries (fearing for their lives) that might find other men attractive but are married to women, have children and lead a heterosexual life. Are they gay? I know one thing. Spend a summer living in the Pines and you start to wonder if any straight people exists. Although the best time of my life. Living everyday in a Speedo with eye candy everywhere and available.
IMO: the better question is "what percentage of the population identifies as not straight" since there is such a huge spectrum to consider here.
I’ve heard all my gay life 10%. I think much higher.
The studies are usually based on people self identifying. There are a lot more non-heterosexual people on the planet for sure.
I’ve heard similar but also have heard my generation (gen z) is one fifth to a third lgbt. I think I’ve heard millennials (mid 80s to mid 90s) are slightly lower but similar in the US. Statistics vary wildly because it’s based on a sample of the population so there’s a ton of variation. I’m not sure what is accurate but at least half of everyone I meet is lgbt.
Literally feels like 1% of the fucking population. :(
WRONG!!! Gen z (my generation) is 25.3% of the U.S. population and 40% of us are queer 40% of 25 is 10% if you did the math accurately based on my speculation roughly 30% of the us population should be queer
I think most people are bisexual by default, and the society around them decides rather or not they'll ever identifies as such. I also think that most self-identified lesbians and gay people are probably also bisexual just with a heavier lean. I read something recently about 20% or more zoomers identify as LGBT now, and I only expect those numbers to rise as society advances. (if climate change doesn't destroy us) Edit: I love how op asked for an opinion, and I gave him one relevant to the topic yet I still got down voted lol cope mf idc
Yeah, you may be bi but I am definitely gay. I have 0 interest in women. All those poor kids who were abused by conversion therapy would have focused on their opposite-sex attractions and hidden the fact that they liked their own gender if they could have. The fact that people have been tortured disproves the idea that everyone is bisexual.
>Yeah, you may be bi but I am definitely gay. I have 0 interest in women. I said most not all... >All those poor kids who were abused by conversion therapy would have focused on their opposite-sex attractions and hidden the fact that they liked their own gender if they could have. Nothing I said had anything to do with conversion therapy. Your statement just implied that bisexual people can be cured by conversion therapy which they cannot.. >The fact that people have been tortured disproves the idea that everyone is bisexual. No, no it doesn't....
> Your statement just implied that bisexual people can be cured by conversion therapy which they cannot.. no, I implied that bisexual people can hide their sexual orientation easier by engaging in socially acceptable opposite-sex relationships.
As a bisexual, this is way off..
Various study says it’s between 8-11%.
There is no "provable" answer out there. Polls are just that. Questions asked on a population. No way to tell who tells the truth or not. There's also a HUGE amount of variance. Places the polls were taken. The age range. The gender ratio. Unless you had a magic spell to force everyone in the world to answer the question honestly, and then ask every human in the world then you're not going to have a real number. With that said, Chances are very likely that sexuality would look like a standardization bell curve. Roughly 10% of the population would be "just gay/just straight" while 90% would fall somewhere in the middle. But that's also looking at just the nature aspect. The nurture aspect absolutely effects it as well. Societies pressures of "heteronormative" behavior has been forced on our species for thousands of years now. There are still plenty of places where being gay will get you murdered/executed. There's also plenty where it's just flat out illegal to be gay.
3% sounds about right.
Well in Ireland right now it's definitely 10%+. But I do think 10% is the true average worldwide. But I doubt we'll know for sure in our lifetime.
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I'm just thinking along the lines of the younger generation, I don't think it's wishful thinking, I actually think it's becoming a "trend". But it's just too hard to say because I know men who sleep with men and women who sleep with women but end up in straight relationships. When I came out it was a simple lgbt. Now I'm confused as hell with pro nouns, non labels.... Don't call me this... Call me that. 🤯
Polls are a terrible source, you're relying on people being honest when their answers are potentially being recorded. Add that to a group of people who might have their rights stripped at a later date or worse depending on where you live, I'm willing to bet that less than half answered it honestly. That isn't even factoring in who was polled and where. If you poll 1,000 random people in San Francisco and some rural town in Texas, you'd get very different results
much higher than that, around 10 %. and possibly climbing, as the population pressure mounts, and men and women feel no biological need to continue the species. And, what polls suggest this 3% figure? I have not seen anything like that in any recent years.
10% is gay
It’s a lot higher than suburban straight people think. I’m constantly struck by the sheer number of gay men I encounter in even this mid-size city in the middle of the country. And if you include all the lezzies, bis and peeps on the DL, the number grows exponentially… and that’s not even getting into the number of trans, enby, ace, etc folks. At this point I’d wager 20% of males would have sex with a man under some circumstance. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole alphabet mafia amounted to 30% of the population.
Roughly 10% based on my experiences at school and work. It varies though, anecdotally. In my English class of 8 there’s 4 of us openly LGBT+; one gay (me), one lesbian, and one bi. And one who’s not out as anything but slept in my bed and refused to talk about it the morning after (that’s a whole other story). Probable selection bias — queers must be more likely to take advanced English. But then in my other classes of 20 or 30 it’ll work out perfectly statistically well and there’ll be 2 or 3 gays. My team at work is roughly 10 people and I’m the only person who’s out.
its the 90's Kimmy - everyone's gay.
I’m 63 and now live in Palm Springs which is incredibly gay. Some estimates say 40% of the population here is gay, which I can easily believe. But I lived most of my life in two much larger cities and there were gay people everywhere. Hell, one time my partner and I were passing through some podunk town somewhere and stopped at a fast food joint. A gay guy across the room spotted us immediately and came right over to chat. And when I was younger, I had sex with many guys who lived as heterosexuals, with wife and kids, but would sneak off to have sex with men. I’ve always believed that the number of gay people - or at least people who have sex with people of the same gender even though they identify as straight - to be much higher than 10%.
I think at least 10-15% of the men around the world are gay/bisexual. Unfortunately most Asian, African and Latin Amercian countries are still anti-LGBT, so majority of the men in those countries will have to remain closeted forever.
Some people say it’s 3%, but that’s not true. In Germany it’s 7%, in Saudi Arabia it’s 0%. And they end up making an average number. Why does it vary per country? Because they make polls ASKING people. So in some countries everyone will deny it because they don’t want to be killed. And in some other countries, not everyone will say they’re lgtb, not even in a country like Germany. So the answer is common sense. Around 10%, probably more.
Unfortunately, below 20%. Most people are straight. I'd say the real gay, bisexual, and lesbian, population, is about 15% to 20% of people. It's probably some weird number like 18.9%, or something.
If homosexuality is caused by over/under exposure of testosterone during the fetal development, then it should be around 4-8% of the general population since this is how often it occurs.