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What percentage of the UK population are gay/bi?

Basically, what percentage of people do you think fancy the same sex?

That includes people who are both out and in the closet.

I'd say 10%-13%.

11.3%

I heard that the homosexual population is around 10%, but I'm not sure whether that includes bisexuals.

Reply 3

irfy

13

Its 11.3%! That is including the all those who we dont know about. 9.4% known + a further 1.9% unknown to give a total of 11.3%

Reply 4

TheMeister

15

it's supposed to be that 6% are openly gay/bi - or about 3-odd million people.

Reply 5

Abby Rose

I'd have thought it was much higher when including bisexuals.
I know a fair few people that are attracted to the same sex.

Reply 6

Student2806

17

11-12%

Just a guess of course.

Reply 7

i.am.lost

18

I know worldwide it's around ~10%. In a country like UK I reckon it would be more like 10-15%

100%

by that logic, atleast 1 person in this thread is gay :beard:

Reply 10

Psyk

16

I'd expect the true world wide percentage to be the same as the UK percentage. Of course the percentage of out of the closet homosexuals would be much higher in the UK compared the entire world since unfortunately most countries are homophobic.

Reply 11

Sephiroth

18

I'm guessing somewhere around 2-3%. I really don't believe the often quoted figure of 10%. Liverpool has a population of 434k people and that would mean around 43k gay people. Considering I can go to the gay scene on a weekend and see the same people every week I doubt the figure is anywhere near that high. Likewise with internet websites, always the same ones on different sites. A tiny fraction of that 43k estimate. I'm talking less than a thousand. Another example, my uni LGBT society has about 100 members, yet you'd expect about 2000 gay people at my university using the 10% figure. Again, a tiny fraction which looks unlikely.

Of course you can say some gay people avoid these activities but I very much doubt it's just a tiny minority who do them. After all, more people are going to want to seek out other gay people rather than hide away. It's unlikely you'll find a boyfriend if you just sit around hoping you meet one randomly in every day life. I'm 25 and only met about three gay people that way, two of which regularly go to the gay scene and the other still convinces himself he likes women. None of which are my type; would be a pretty lonely life to limit myself in such a way.

You may say the other 7-8% are closet cases, but it depends what you define as a closet case. Many closet cases are out to their friends and not family, and even a lot who are out to no one have no problems going to the gay scene or using gay websites.

Reply 12

YerMah

how is there any way to calculate whos in the closet. its impossible hence the whole not knowing whos gay

Reply 13

dbmag9

15

The figure of ~10% comes originally from one of Kinsey's studies, which were somewhat skewed thanks to him prefering to interview 'interesting' people for his studies. I've heard more realistic estimate in the region of 6% or less. Regretably, 1 in 10 people are probably not gay. :frown:

Not sure about bi people, but I don't imagine it's a very significant percentage; from what I've seen there seem to be fewer bi guys than gay guys, at least.

Reply 14

toanythingtaboo

I'd say 10% is pretty much right, I don't imagine it would fall much below 7 or above 12.

I know quite a lot of gay/lesbian/bisexual folk just through every day life at school/uni. I'm not into the gay scene and I'm not involved in the LGBT societies or anything. Unless I'm a magnet, or drawn subconsciously towards others...I'd say it's not as uncommon as some would believe.

At worst, I'd probably say 1 in 20. Which isn't really that rare when you think about it...

Reply 15

EssexDan86

17

It's nowhere near 1 in 10, judging from the average office or uni class. More like 3-6%

Reply 16

beautifulbigmacs

19

I think that we're all bi to a point and then the extent to which an individual chooses to embrace it accounts for who would statistically be identifiable as part of the lgbt community