Marginal increase in LGB people in UK

THE proportion of the UK population aged 16+identifying as heterosexual or straight decreased from 95.3% in 2014 to 94.6% in 2018, stated the latest Sexual Orientation UK report from the office for National Statistics released on Friday (6).

The proportion identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) increased from 1.6% in 2014 to 2.2% in 2018.

The report said that in 2018, there were 1.2 million people aged 16+ identifying as LGB.

Men (2.5%) were more likely to identify as LGB than women (2.0%) in 2018. Younger people (aged 16 to 24 years) were most likely to identify as LGB in 2018 (4.4%). data stated.

Among English regions, people in London were most likely to identify as LGB (2.8%), with people in the North East the least likely (1.8%), the report revealed.

“Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of the LGB population are single (never married or entered into a civil partnership)," says Sophie Sanders, Population Statistics Division, Office for National Statistics.

"This reflects the younger age structure of this population, the changing attitudes of the general population to marriage and the fact that legal unions have only recently been available for same-sex couples," she added.

In 2018, an estimated 94.6% of the UK population aged 16+ (53 million) identified as heterosexual or straight. This represents a continuation of the decrease seen since 2014, when 95.3% of the population identified themselves as heterosexual or straight.

Among those identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) in 2018, more than two-thirds (68.7%) were single. This is double the proportion of those who identified as heterosexual or straight and were single (34.2%).

In 2018, the percentage of people who identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) was similar for England (2.3%), Wales (2.4%) and Scotland (2.0%).

For Northern Ireland, the percentage of people identifying themselves as LGB in 2018 was 1.2%, the report noted.