Exactly How Many People Identify as LGBT?

Extensive studies conducted into people’s sexual preferences and activities have brought to light a whole bunch of interesting findings. Researchers at the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute recently published a paper highlighting the extent to which more people than ever before are identifying as gay, lesbian or bisexual. We will look in depth the details of how many people identify as LGBT.

Attitudes to sexual preferences have been changing for some time, transforming the way people approach their sex lives and their own sexuality in general. The prospect of a bisexual threesome is no longer a terrifying thought for those who identify as straight, paving the way for open and satisfying sex lives for those who aren’t afraid to admit what they really want.

In specific, the Williams Institute review produced a raft of remarkable data highlighting the growing tendency for people in the United States (and other regions worldwide) to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT).

A few of the most interesting findings were as follows:

• It is estimated that as much as 3.5% of all adults in North America consider themselves to be gay, lesbian or bisexual. In addition, a further 0.3% now identify as transgender.
• Put into context, this would mean that the LGBT community in the United States has grown to approximately 9 million adults. That’s roughly how many people currently reside in the entire state of New Jersey.
• People in America are more likely to identify as bisexual than gay or lesbian – 1.8% compared to around 1.7%.
• Statistically, it is significantly more likely for a woman to consider herself to be bisexual than a man. Generally speaking, women are far more likely to experiment with same sex relationships than their male counterparts, or come out as openly gay.
• Research also suggests that the number of people who identify as LGBT remains exponentially lower than the proportion of men and women who have experimented with same-sex relationships, or participated in gay or bisexual activities in general.
• Women are substantially more likely than men to identify as bisexual. Bisexuals comprise more than half of the lesbian and bisexual population among women in eight of the nine surveys considered in the brief. Conversely, gay men comprise substantially more than half of gay and bisexual men in seven of the nine surveys.
• It is estimated that around 19 million adults in the United States have engaged in same-sex sexual behavior at some point during their lifetime.
• Furthermore, around 11% of the total adult population in North America (some 25.6 million people) say that they have experienced some form of same-sex sexual attraction.

Reaching any formal conclusions as to how many adults are lesbian, gay, or bisexual in any given country is difficult, given the tendency for so many to offer a dishonest or incomplete information.

However, evidence suggests that the proportion of adults who are either gay, lesbian or bisexual (or engage in same-sex activities of some kind) is likely to be exponentially higher than the figures suggest and they identify as LGBT.