More young adults than ever in the UK are now identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB), new figures today suggested.
The proportion of 16 to 24-year-olds who are LGB has almost quadrupled in a decade and now stands at over one in 10.
Roughly 10.5 per cent of Gen Z identified as LGB in 2023, up from just 2.8 per cent in 2014 and 4.4 per cent in 2018.
Across the UK population as a whole, an estimated 3.8 per cent of those aged over 16 identified as LGB, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) — the equivalent of 2.1 million Brits.
This is up over a million since 2018, when the figure stood at 2.2 per cent, meaning it has almost doubled.
The proportion identifying as heterosexual has fallen over the same period, from 94.6 per cent to 93.6 per cent.
This drop ‘may be attributed to more people being more open to identifying their own sexual orientation as being LGB,’ the ONS said.
This ‘together with changing societal attitudes means a greater acceptance of different sexual orientations’, they added.
Roughly 10.5 per cent of Gen Z identified as LGB in 2023, up from just 2.8 per cent in 2014 and 4.4 per cent in 2018 (pictured: London Pride)
The estimates were published by the ONS using data from the Annual Population Survey, which collects information on sexual identity from the household population aged 16 and over in the UK.
According to the data, Men were more likely than women to identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual in 2023.
An estimated 4.2 per cent of men — roughly 1.1 million — said they were LGB, compared to 3.4 per cent of women, or 938,000.
But by sexual orientation, women were more likely than men to identify as bisexual in 2023.
Young women had the highest proportion identifying as bisexual, with the figure stood at 9.2 per cent among 16 to 24-year-olds.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
