In a global survey conducted in 2023, three percent of respondents declared to be homosexual, gay, or lesbian. In Brazil and the Netherlands, for instance, nine percent, instead, identified as bisexual, representing the largest group of bisexual respondents among the 30 surveyed countries. Moreover, two percent of the interviewees in Switzerland said to be pansexual or omnisexual. Pansexuality describes people who feel attracted to other people regardless of their biological sex, gender, or gender identity, whereas omnisexuality refers to people attracted to people of all gender identities and sexual orientations.

In 2023, Brazil was the country with the largest share of LGBT+ population at 15 percent. Spain and Switzerland followed next, with 14 and 13 percent of their population identifying as LGBT+, respectively.

This statistics shows a ranking of the friendliness towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Latin America in 2016, broken down by country. In that year, Uruguay and Argentina ranked first on the LGBT friendliness scale, whereas Paraguay came in last with a score of 14.

Over the 2015-2018 period, nearly 900,000 people aged over 15 defined themselves as something other than heterosexual in Canada: 405,700 identified as lesbian or gay, while 493,200 identified as bisexual. The provinces with the largest number of non-heterosexuals people were Ontario and Quebec, which are also the most populous provinces in the country. In addition, with the exception of Quebec, bisexual people outnumbered lesbian or gay people in all provinces.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The EU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Survey (EU LGBT) was conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). It is the first ever EU-wide online survey to establish an overview concerning the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people (18 years or older) and their experiences with regard to fundamental rights in the 28 EU Member States. Up until now, there has been very little comparable data collected across the EU about the everyday experiences of LGBT people with respect to discrimination, and lot of the available information is limited to occasional news reports and court judgements. As the first EU-wide survey of its kind, the results support the development of equal treatment policies for LGBT people in the European Union and set the agenda for years to come. Based on the survey results, national and European policy makers, as well as non-governmental organisations, are able to better target their advocacy strategies and activities to support LGBT communities to live and express themselves freely in a non-discriminatory environment. The survey was completely anonymous (no additional data on the participants and their sessions were logged in any way). The survey data collection operated by Gallup Europe, a professional survey and consultancy firm. In order to ensure that the survey delivers evidence needed for policy making, the EU LGBT Survey counted on the participation of a large and diverse group of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people from each country. Hence, it was vitally important for the success of the survey that FRA and Gallup worked together with civil society organisations to reach a wide audience and raise awareness concerning the survey, including participants emailing the survey, sharing it through social media or simply inviting LGBT friends to take part.

More information can be found on the FRA website

In 2021, around 14 percent of individuals living in the District of Columbia identified as LGBT. Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon also had high rates, exceeding ten percent. Mississippi and North Dakota had the lowest rates of LGBT populations, the only states with less than five percent.

The cities in Europe where survey respondents most commonly indicated that they were a good place to live for gay and lesbian people were Rekjavik,Valletta and Groningen in 2023. In general, the cities which ranked as the best place to live for lesbian and gay people in Europe were in Nordic countries (Norway, Iceland, Copenhagen, Sweden, Finland), western European countries (Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands), and southern European countries (Italy, Malta, Spain). The five cities with the fewest respondents indicating that they were a good place to live were all in south-eastern Europe, with the bottom two both coming from Turkey (Diyarbakir) and Albania (Tirania). Turkey tends to rank so lowly due to the influence of traditionalist and religious social norms, which do not recognize LGBTQ relationships as being on a par as heterosexual relationships and lead to more commonly held homophobic views.

The EU LGBTI II survey was carried out by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in 2019. It is a large-scale survey into experiences and views of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) individuals. The survey provides comparative evidence on how LGBTI persons in the EU experience discrimination, violence and harassment in different areas of life, including employment, education, healthcare, housing and other services.

The EU LGBTI II survey is a follow-up of the first–ever major international survey on LGBT people, which the Agency conducted in 2012. The EU LGBTI II survey is a follow-up to the first major international survey of LGBT people conducted by the Agency in 2012. The EU LGBTI II survey is a web-based opt-in survey using an anonymous online questionnaire. The survey is based on a self-selective sample. The survey was conducted between 27 May and 22 July 2019 via the website www.lgbtisurvey.eu and collected valid responses from 139,799 respondents from the Member States of the European Union (EU), Northern Macedonia and Serbia (in this context, the United Kingdom is included in the group of EU Member States, reflecting the situation at the time of data collection in 2019). Following an EU-wide open call for tenders, the FRA contracted a consortium of Agilis SA (http://www.agilis-sa.gr/) and Homoevolution (https://homoevolution.com/), based in Greece, to carry out the survey according to the FRA´s technical specifications and under the supervision of FRA staff who monitored compliance with strict quality control procedures.

The EU LGBTI II survey asked a number of questions about the experiences of LGBTI people in the following areas: (1) Perceived increase or decrease in intolerance, prejudice and violence against LGBTI people; (2) Discrimination at work, looking for work and in several other areas of life; (3) Safe environment; (4) Physical or sexual victimisation; (5) Harassment; (6) Social context of being LGBTI; (7) Background information (age, education, income, civil status); (8) Specific sections dedicated to issues related to the life of trans as well as intersex persons.

1. Sexual orientation and sexual behaviour: to whom is the respondent sexually attracted; sex of sexual partners in the last five years; country of current residence and length of stay; citizen of the country; citizenship; country of birth; age at realisation of sexual orientation; age at first outing.

2. Trans respondents: Age at realisation that feelings about one´s own sex do not match the sex assigned at birth; age at first outing; measures taken to change body to better match one´s own sex identity and age at first intervention; reasons why no measures were taken to change body; medical treatment abroad to change one´s appearance, including buying hormones via the internet; avoiding expressing one´s own sex (or desired sex) by means of appearance and clothing for fear of being attacked, threatened or harassed; changing one´s legal sex; reasons for not changing one´s legal sex so far.

3. Intersexual respondents: type of existing variants of sexual characteristics or treatment for them; diagnosis of variants of sexual characteristics by health professionals; time of diagnosis (before birth, at birth, in childhood, adolescence or at a later age); time of first diagnosis in adolescence or at a later age; age at first realisation of variants of one´s own sexual characteristics; age at first outing; medical treatment to change sexual characteristics; age at first medical treatment; age at first medical treatment; consent given to treatment; type of treatment; informing the interviewee or his/her parents about possible positive or negative consequences; difficulties in registering civil status or sex in public documents; nature of difficulties; greatest difficulties encountered by intersexuals in the country.

4. Developments and responses to homophobia, transphobia, biphobia and intersex phobia: perceived increase or decrease in intolerance, prejudice and violence against LGBTI persons in the country over the last five years; main reasons for decrease or increase in prejudice and intolerance or violence; effectiveness of government action in combating prejudice and intolerance

5. Discrimination at work, when looking for work and in various other areas of life: Experience of discrimination in different spheres of life; situation at the time of the most recent discrimination; reasons for discrimination other than LGBTI; reporting of the incident by the respondent or another person; organisation or institution to which the incident was reported; reasons why the incident was not reported; paid employment during the last five years; personal contact and experiences of LGBTI during employment: openness towards others, silence, negative comments towards oneself or one´s own person general; experienced or perceived support in the professional environment; experience of LGBTI during schooling;...

In a global survey conducted in 2023, three percent of respondents from 30 countries declared that they were homosexual, gay, or lesbian, with four percent who identified as bisexual. One percent of the interviewees said that they were pansexual or omnisexual. Pansexuality describes people who feel attracted to other people regardless of their biological sex, gender, or gender identity, whereas omnisexuality refers to people attracted to people of all gender identities and sexual orientations. Finally, one percent of respondents were asexual, which means they experience little to no sexual attraction to anyone, regardless of their gender.

LGBT people around the world

LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. Introduced in the 1990s, LGBT generally includes anyone who is not heterosexual or cisgender. Heterosexual refers to a person attracted to people of the opposite gender, whereas cisgender describes a person whose gender identity is the same as their sex at birth. Acceptance of other gender identities and sexual orientations is usually higher in Western countries. In a study conducted among 34 countries, acceptance of homosexuality was higher in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Spain.

Homosexuality in African countries

Worldwide, 71 countries criminalize homosexuality as of 2021, most of which are located in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. In Africa, 32 out of 54 countries criminalize homosexuality. In four countries, the legislation imposed the death penalty for sexual relations between people of the same sex. In fact, in most African countries, homosexuality has low levels of acceptance, or is not accepted at all. In a recent survey, most respondents in Africa showed high levels of intolerance towards LGBT+ in their vicinity.

The most common response in the European Union among LGBTQ survey respondents when asked to rank their life satisfaction on a scale from one to ten, was to give a score of seven in 2019. This varied from countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain, where the most common response was eight out of ten, to North Macedonia, where the most common response was six.

In a global survey conducted in 2023, three percent of respondents from 30 countries identified themselves as transgender, non-binary/non-conforming/gender-fluid, or in another way. In Switzerland, around six percent of the respondents stated to identify themselves with one of the listed genders.

According to a 2019 survey, 54 percent of respondents from South Africa believed homosexuality should be accepted by society. Recognition of homosexuality in the world was highest in Western European countries, Canada and Australia. Despite Kenya ranking comparatively low in the global comparison, acceptance of people identifying as LGBTQ+ notably increased since 2002. Among the four African countries taken into consideration, the lowest degree of acceptance among interviewees was recorded in Nigeria, at seven percent.

France, Portugal, and Greece are the three European countries with the greatest share of respondents indicating that homophobia is either fairly or very widespread in 2019. While this may indicate that these countries have a particular problem with homophobia, there is also a possibility that countries where people are more educated about LGBTQ issues, citizens are also more aware of discrimination.

For instance, some countries such as Bulgaria, Latvia, and Slovakia where most respondents say that discrimination against gay people is rare or non-existent also have higher shares of LGBT respondents indicating they have experienced discrimination in other surveys. It may be the case that in these countries, as LGBTQ issues are less widely discussed and education is less inclusive of the queer communities concerns, that the general public is less aware of homophobia.

On the other hand, countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK, where LGBTQ people report being able to have a greater level of openness about being gay in their daily lives, report more widespread homophobia. Paradoxically, it may be because of this widespread awareness and openness about LGBTQ issues that more respondents in the general public respond that homophobia is widespread.

As of April 2024, 55 percent of the LGBT population lived in the 50 states and the District of Columbia where private health insurance service providers weren't allowed to deny coverage for transgender-related health care services, such as sex reassignment surgery. However, only 40 percent lived in states where health insurance protections included sexual orientation and gender identity.

LGBT Americans The share of Americans self-identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender has grown in recent years. This suggests that insurance protections which cover LGBT-related health care services will also continue to grow in importance. The prevalence of younger Americans self-identifying as LGBT when compared with older generations confirms this. Millennials and Gen Xers are much more likely to personally identify as LGBT than previous generations were. Growing acceptance and tolerance in wider society means that more people are willing to be open about their gender identity and sexual orientation. For instance, support for same-sex marriage in the U.S. underwent a huge shift over the past two decades with the majority of Americans being in favor of it since 2011.

According to a survey published in 2020, intolerance toward LGBTQ people in Africa is considerably high. In 2018, the vast majority of respondents from 34 African countries showed strong intolerance toward having LGBTQ people as neighbors. In Eastern Africa, only seven percent of the interviewees would either not care or like to have LGBTQ people as neighbors. The least concern was shown by respondents from Southern Africa, where 30 percent of the respondents would either not care or like it if this situation occurred.

The Dominican Republic's 2024 Gay Travel Index score was -11, making it one of Latin America's most dangerous destinations of LGBT tourists. The country received no plus points, rather only zero or negative points. The category for which the Dominican Republic was deducted two points was religious influence. The Caribbean country saw an improvement in the number of intentional homicides in 2023, after a negative development in the previous years.

In 2023, the number of violent deaths of LGBT+ people in Brazil decreased in comparison to the previous year, totaling 230 occurrences. That same year, over half of LGBT+ victims were identified as gay.

In a survey from March 2021 conducted in France, 12 percent of responding young females and eight percent of responding young males stated that they had already a homosexual relationship and enjoyed it. It may be stated that younger generations are more open about sexuality and gender, and generally 86 percent of French citizens think homosexuality is a way of life that should be accepted by society.

Younger women and sexual practices

According to France Televisions, 30 percent of young French women aged between 18 and 34 years stated that they never had a homosexual relationship but will be open to it if the opportunity arose. In comparison, only 11 percent of responding men declared the same. There were also 72 percent to mentioning that they do not wish to have a gay relationship, compared to 56 percent of women surveyed. This open-mindedness could be linked with the evolution of sexual practices among younger generations. Thus, since 1990 the proportion of women aged 20 to 24 years having already practiced oral sex increased in France. Similarly, the share of women who already practiced sodomy was also more important since 1992. The evolution of society, as well as internet, appears to have allowed women to dare to experiment more.

Being gay in France

In 2011, 31 percent of French men aged 18 to 34 years were in a relationship with a same-sex person, compared to 34 percent of women the same age. Gay marriage is legal in France since 2013 and the number of same-sex weddings reached a record number of 10,552 unions in 2014. However, LGBT people in the country still face difficulties sometimes. In 2015, more than 60 percent of French aged 18 to 24 years already came across homophobic statements online.

Spain was ranked fourth out of 49 European countries in the annual Rainbow Europe rankings in 2024, with the country achieving an overall score of 76.41 percent for its legal, political, and human rights provisions. The country performed relatively well on most indicators, having particularly strong protections for LGBTI civil society, family rights, equality & non-discrimination provisions, and laws which ensure the gender recognition rights of transgender citizens and residents. Spain performs less well on intersex bodily integrity laws, although it must be noted that relative to most European countries the score of 50 percent is still high.

Worldwide, Brazil reported the highest number of transgender people murdered in 2023, reaching 100 victims. Most of the murders that year were reported in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is assumed that only a minority of the cases actually are reported, and the actual number is estimated to be significantly higher.