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Young twice as likely to identify as gay or bisexual than older generations, government data shows

More than one in 25 men and women aged 16 to 24 identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual - Pacific Press / Barcroft Media
More than one in 25 men and women aged 16 to 24 identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual - Pacific Press / Barcroft Media

Men and women in their late teens and early 20s are twice as likely to identify as gay or bisexual as any other older generation, Office for National Statistics (ONS) data reveals.

More than one in 25 men and women (4.2%) aged 16 to 24 said they were gay, lesbian or bisexual, according to the first official breakdown of sexual orientation by age and gender.

This is double the rate of 2% for all age groups and four times that of people in their 50s or aged over 65.

ONS experts attributed the generational shift to younger people being more likely to explore their sexuality “combined with more social acceptability of sexual identities today and the ability to express these.”

Over the last five years, the proportion of the population identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) has increased from 1.5% in 2012 to 2% in 2017, representing 1.1m out of a population of 52.8m aged over 16.

Emma Meehan,  of the LGBT Foundation, cited legal moves to counter discrimination and equality laws for the shift, including the scrapping of Section 28 which restricted teaching of homosexuality in schools.

“The younger generation are the first to go to school since Section 28 was abolished, and this has contributed towards more young people being able to be their authentic selves and be more open about their sexual orientation or gender identity,” she said.

“Legislation such as the Equality Act 2010 has also resulted in additional legal rights for LGBT people, and it is often found that with enhanced legal rights, social acceptance follows.”

The ONS figures revealed a sharp rise in 16 to 24 year olds identifying as LGB, up from 3.1% in 2012 to 4.2%.

They were the only age group for which more women (4.7%) identified as LGB than men (3.7%). This was driven by a larger proportion of women identifying as bisexual in this age group than in older age groups.

They were also the only age group to have a larger proportion identifying as bisexual than gay or lesbian, 2.3% to 1.9%.

By comparison, only 0.7% of the population aged 65 years and over identified as LGB in 2017, and it was under 2% of those aged over 35. Across all age groups, men (2.3%) were more likely to identify as LGB than women (1.8%).

Around 70% of the LGB  population are single and have never married or registered a civil partnership.

“This reflects the younger age structure of this population and that legal unions for same-sex couples are relatively new,” said Paula Guy, of the ONS’s population statistics division.

More than one in 10 of those who identified as LGB were married to someone from the opposite sex, while around 5% were in same sex marriages and 7% in civil partnerships.

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%).

In 2017, an estimated 93.2% of the UK population (49.2m people) identified as heterosexual or straight, continuing the decline from 2012 (94.4%).

Sexual orientation estimates are based on data from the Annual Population Survey (APS), which records self-perceived sexual identity from the household population aged 16 and over.

Paul Twocock, Director of Campaigns, Policy and Research at Stonewall, said: "While there has been an increase in the number of people identifying as lesbian, gay or bi since 2012, it’s important to remember that many LGB people still aren’t able to be open about their sexual orientation with friends, family and colleagues.

"We know that only half of lesbian, gay and bi people (46 per cent) feel able to be open about their sexual orientation to everyone in their family, and nearly one in five LGB people (18 per cent) aren’t open about their identity with anyone at work."