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.

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

According to a global survey conducted in 2021, three in 10 respondents had at least once spoken out against someone who was being prejudiced against LGBT+ people. In addition, some 13 percent attended a public event in support of LGBT+ people, e.g. a Pride march.

In a global survey conducted in 2023, ***** percent of respondents from 30 countries declared that they were homosexual, gay, or lesbian, with **** percent who identified as bisexual. *** 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, *** 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.

Over the 2015-2018 period, nearly ******* people aged over ** defined themselves as something other than heterosexual in Canada: ******* identified as lesbian or gay, while ******* 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.

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.

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.

Malta was rated the safest travel destination for members of the LGBT community, according to a 2023 ranking. With 13 points, the European country outperformed Canada and Switzerland - the following safest countries in the list. Out of the 12 best-performing countries that year, eight are located in Europe.

LGBT rights in Canada

Back in 2005, Canada was the fourth country worldwide to legalize same-sex marriage. The North American nation is in the vanguard of LGBT rights and has passed multiple laws assuring equality for this group, such as allowing adoption by same-sex couples, protecting transgender rights, and banning conversion therapy. Meanwhile, its land neighbor, the United States, had the share of the population that identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender increased steadily between 2012 and 2021.

Acceptance around the globe

According to a survey conducted in 2021 in 27 countries, opinions on the rights of same-sex couples varied greatly around the world. Western European and American nations were particularly supportive of marriage or, failing that, some form of legal recognition for homosexual couples.

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 discriminat...

In 2023, approximately 91.2 percent of the population of London identified as being Heterosexual or Straight, which was the lowest among regions of the United Kingdom. As of this year, approximately 3.5 percent of Londoners identified as being Gay or Lesbian, 1.7 percent as Bisexual, 0.9 percent as Other and 2.8 percent who did not know, or refused to answer.

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.

According to survey conducted in eight countries, Spain is the country where people are more likely to identify themselves part of the LGBTQ+ community. It is also the country in which respondents stated more often to have a close friend or relative who is part of the LGBTQ+ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, non-binary, among others). Sweden, Germany, Italy, and Denmark, on the other hand, record the highest share of respondents who were neither part of the LGBTQ community nor knew anyone who is part of it.

According to a survey published in 2021, Senegal is the most intolerant country in Africa toward people of different sexual identity or orientation. A total of ** percent of respondents from Senegal stated they would dislike having homosexual people as neighbors. Other countries in which over ** percent of the respondents declared the same were Liberia, Malawi, Ghana, Mali, Guinea, Uganda, and Burkina Faso.

In 2022, about ** percent of male-male couples in the United States were White, compared to *** percent of gay couples who were Black or African American. Gay marriage in the United States In the mid-1990s, a majority of the U.S. population believed that same-sex couples should not be recognized by law, although this figure has been on the decline since then. In 2011, more than ** percent of Americans believed the opposite, saying that homosexual couples should be recognized by law. 2015 saw a spike in support, and on June 26 of that year, the United States Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges. Being LGBT in America The share of Americans who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) has been on the rise since 2012 and it is estimated that there are about *********** same-sex couples in the U.S. Additionally, about **** of surveyed people in 2019 believe that one is born gay or lesbian – a significant increase from 1977, when only ** percent of respondents said the same.

The small island nation of ***** was ranked as the country in Europe which has the most LGBTQ-friendly laws and policies in 2024 by Rainbow Europe. The country has made great progress in recent years in passing laws which protect the rights of its LGBTQ citizens and residents, such as outlawing so-called "conversion therapy", banning genital mutilation for intersex people, promoting anti-discrimination practices in the workplace, allowing transgender people to more easily change their gender legally. It has also legalized same-sex marriage. EU states lead the way on LGBTQ rights Other leading countries in Europe for LGBTQ rights include Belgium, Denmark, and Spain, with the countries which performed well being concentrated in southern, western, and northern Europe. Many of the top performing countries are members of the European Union, which has specific provisions about protecting minority rights as a prelude to membership, however, it is notable that several member states in central-eastern and south-eastern Europe perform particularly poorly, notably Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. The poor state of LGBTQ rights in eastern Europe Unfortunately, there are still some countries in Europe where LGBTQ rights are not respected or legally enshrined at all, mostly concentrated among non-EU members in eastern Europe. Azerbaijan, Turkey, Armenia, Russia, and Belarus make up the five worst performing states, with the homophobic stances of their governments intensifying in recent years.

Worldwide, 64 countries criminalize homosexuality as of 2024. Most of them are located in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. In 12 countries, the death penalty is imposed or at least a possibility for private, consensual same-sex sexual activity. These countries are Iran, Northern Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania, Pakistan, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Uganda.

According to survey conducted in eight countries, Great Britain is the country where people are more likely to support a family member of a friend who would come out as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. The least supportive countries, on the other hand, seem to be Italy and Germany. In Italy, for instance, some 14 percent of respondents stated to be unsupportive, while in Germany, some 14 percent would oppose their friends or family.

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.