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Gay News: A new report from the National Office of Statistics has revealed that only 1% of people polled identified themselves as gay or lesbian.
One per cent? Or more?
Just one per cent identify as gay or lesbian
An additional 0.5% described themselves as bisexual, with 94.8% identifying as heterosexual.
The survey’s findings are dramatically different from the usual official figure of 7 – 10% normally cited.
However the results of the survey are still considered to be in a testing stage, and they have not yet been assessed by the UK’s Statistics Authority.
Gay rights group Stonewall suggested that the figures could, in fact, be higher.
Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill pointed out that this was the first time people were asked the question.
“Data collection happened on the doorstep or over the phone,” he said, “which may deter people from giving accurate responses – particularly if someone isn’t openly gay at home.”
The Integrated House Survey questioned 247,623 people over sixteen throughout the country between April 2009 to March 2010.
They were asked whether they considered themselves to be “heterosexual”, “gay/ lesbian”, “bisexual,” or “other”.
Of the people identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB), 64.9% were aged under 45, compared to 48.6 % describing themselves as heterosexual. However only 8.2% of people over 65 identified themselves as LGB.
93.5% of people calling themselves LGB were white, and a third said that they had no religion, compared to 20.4% of heterosexuals who had no faith.
Respondents identifying themselves as gay or lesbian tended to be educated to a higher level than straight people. 38.1% of gay men and lesbians were educated to degree level, compared to only 21.9% of heterosexuals.
A greater proportion of gays and lesbian were in managerial or professional positions (49.1%) compared to heterosexuals (30.6%) or bisexuals (28.1%).
A higher proportion of gay/lesbian people were in the managerial and professional classifications (49.1 per cent) than heterosexuals (30.6%) or bisexuals (28.1%).
According to the survey exactly one third of LGB people currently smoke, compared to 22.7% of heterosexuals.
London has the largest proportion of adults identifying as LGB (2.2%) while Northern Ireland had the lowest proportion of adults identifying as LGB in the UK at just 0.9%.
