Orientation statistics

Office for National Statistics­­­  |  UK & Ireland
Date posted:  1 Mar 2019
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The 2017 data on sexual orientation in the UK by region, sex, age, marital status, ethnicity and socio-economic classification shows that the proportion of the UK population aged 16 years and over identifying as heterosexual or straight has decreased from 94.4% in 2012 to 93.2% in 2017.

In 2017, there were an estimated 1.1 million people aged 16 years and over identifying as LGB out of a UK population aged 16 years and over of 52.8 million. Males (2.3%) were more likely to identify as LGB than females (1.8%) in 2017. People aged 16 to 24 years were most likely to identify as LGB in 2017 (4.2%). Regionally, people in London were most likely to identify as LGB (2.6%), with people in the North East and East of England the least likely (both 1.5%).

69.4% of people who identified themselves as LGB had a marital status of single (never married or in a civil partnership).

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