The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently conducted an Integrated Household Survey in the United Kingdom and the results were particularly surprising. It is acutely estimated that 480,000 (equivalent to about 1 percent of the UK population) consider themselves gay or lesbian. Half of that percentage equates to those who consider themselves bisexual (numbers round out to 245,000 people or 0.5 percent).
The options in the poll offered to people aged 16 years or older were fairly simplistic in nature. It called for the subjects to choose from one of the following categories to describe their “sexual identity” – heterosexual/straight, gay/lesbian, bisexual, or other. Noticeably, the option to mark “transgender” was not offered on this particular study.
The results of the survey showed the following:
- 95% said they were heterosexual
- 1% gay or lesbian
- 0.5% bisexual
- 0.5% other
- 3% either did not know or did not answer
Stonewall is a charity in the UK responsible for working with 600 major employers to obtain data over time for statistics review. Chief Executive Ben Summerskill said, "This is the first time that people were asked and data collection happened on doorsteps or over the phone, which may deter people from giving accurate responses - particularly if someone isn't openly gay at home."
Summerskill added, "We'd expect to see these figures increase over time as people's confidence in the survey grows and sexual orientation becomes a routine part of data collection," he said.
The percentage of gay, lesbian or bisexual responses were highest in London and lowest overall in Northern Ireland.
The ONS pointed out that the results of the survey were entirely experimental. However, the survey provides the biggest pool of social data in the UK after the Census.
The UK’s Daily Express reported, “A Church of England spokesman said: ‘the results of the survey confirm just how important a part of British society the Christian faith is. The figures back up the results of the last national census and the latest research on church attendance showing that any decline there has been has bottomed out.”
Tory MP Philip Davies had this to say. “An awful lot of focus in diversity issues is given to people’s sexual preference and this difference is not quite as widespread as believed. That said, I do not see what relevance it is to anyone else. Someone’s sexual preference is a personal matter and it calls in to question why anyone is bothered at all.”
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