About one in 10 young adults in the UK are likely to identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB), with the proportion more than doubling in five years, new figures suggest.
Some 10.4% of 16 to 24-year-olds identified as LGB in 2023, up from 4.4% in 2018.
The rise has been driven by a “large increase” in the proportion of young people identifying as bisexual, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity.
Some 7.5% of people aged 16-24 identified as bisexual in 2023, up from 2.8% in 2018.
The figure is even higher among females aged 16-24, with 9.2% identifying as bisexual, compared with 5.9% of males.
The estimates have been 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.
The survey suggests the proportion of all adults identifying as LGB stood at 3.8% in 2023, up from 2.2% in 2018.
Some 2.0% identified as gay or lesbian, up from 1.4%, while 1.8% identified as bisexual, up from 0.9%.
A total of 93.6% identified as heterosexual or straight, down from 94.6% in 2018.
In addition, 0.7% identified as “other”, up from 0.6%, while 1.8% said they did not know or refused to answer, down from 2.5%.
“The increase in LGB responses may be attributed to more people being more open to identifying their own sexual orientation as being LGB, together with changing societal attitudes meaning a greater acceptance of different sexual orientations”, the ONS said.
Recent results from the separate British Social Attitudes Survey “support the view that society is becoming more welcoming towards diversity in sexual identity – a view supported by the recognition of same-sex relationships in law through same-sex marriage and same-sex civil partnership legislation,” the ONS added.