Gay/Bi Population

It is at very least 3.5%, and at very most 15%. It is probably around 8% or so.

 

LGBT in the US was estimated by gallup poll to be around 3%, however it's safe to assume that the number is much higher than that, so between 5% to 10%

 

I've seen estimates at anything between 1% and 10%. 1% is consistently shown as too low, and 10% usually uses a loose definition of "gay/bi". 3% to 5% is consistent and reasonable. It often seems estimated at around 3%, but some folks answering as straight when they're not is to be expected.

 

For exclusive Kinsey 6s, I'd say 4% looks reasonable. That's 1 in 25 people.

 

i always so 10 because there are still alot of people in the closet that have not come out that we dont know about so id always rounf up.

 

^
It's harder to compute when you include bisexuals, because of the way they would choose to identify when sampled. Actually, the same could be said of gay and lesbian folks who might check off hetero on a questionnaire. With bisexuals, the figure of 4% probably doubles, so 8% isn't such a minority in the end. Those are just my hunches.

Also, certain cities and states have larger GLBT populations, making you think a figure like 4% is just plain wrong. In those areas, it is. However, in rural areas or conservative states, the figure might be lower because if people are able to move out to breathe a little freer, they will.

Really interesting link on wiki with information on a lot of cities and areas in the U.S. and "by city" is the most interesting part. The higher percentages are not in the largest cities:

LGBT demographics of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I'd like to believe it's 10% because if the statistics say 5-8% then it's probably a bit higher but I don't know. Because that would mean if I went to a school of 800, there would have been 80 gay students. And there weren't. Or that would mean there are at least 5000 gay people in this town and there can't be that many! I'd be surprised if that number was anywhere above 100-200. It probably depends on where you live. (San Francisco/etc. vs small town)
I might have got this question wrong. I'm sorry if I did. Did you mean the probability of being born gay?

 

Since a lot of people are in the closet, it is just impossible to know.
Maybe it's actually 30% or more (maybe not gay but at least bi).

 

Um, what's the difference?

Because of how these statistics work, they can only give an estimation. Of course there are areas where there are more gay people, and there are places where gay people will not live if given the choice. The problem with polls is that people can lie. I'd say it's usually higher than what the statistics say, because people may not realise they're gay or are in denial, or just lie for privacy purposes. I still think many bi men/women identify as straight to avoid social pressure (and that's why I don't know anyone who identifies as bi). From what I notice, it has always been around 10% for me. When I was in middle school, there were ~30 guys in my class, and I can definitely tell that at least 4 of them are gay now. The same goes for every other class of mine. Adding the bi folks in, I think it should be 15-20% at least.

How do you know there weren't?

Why? It could be that they're hiding it, or that you haven't asked. That's the reason there's a need to "come out".

 

What about swingers? They usually identify as hetero but often cross over for the thrill of trying something new.

 

Just for the heck of it, take out your high school yearbook, if it's a class of 150, 200, or even 300. Then, go through it and, based on contact over time, like reunions or through social media, where someone's family is on display and they are into their married type hobbies, or even based on perceptions and information back then, do a rough estimate, and you'd probably get 4 to 8%. In a regular suburb, it won't be a third of the class. That's unrealistic. This isn't scientific, but just a quick study.

 

Here is a relevant wikipedia article that you all might find interesting.

 

I go with the 10% theory. There are people closeted to others and people closeted to themselves. Therefore studies can't be very accurate.

 

:eek: Please please please please please be 30% o.o then I may actually have a chance of finding someone ^^

I should imagine it lies around 5%ish. If it were 1%, that'd mean only 600,000 people in the entire of the UK were gay. And that depresses me ever so. But if it were 5%, then it would be more like 3,000,000 which sounds more likely, and less depressing for me! Although if you take America, that means there must be at least 15,000,000 gay people, maybe I should move there (and 90,000,000 in China o.o).

 

That's what I'm hoping for tool! I still don't know how many lesbians there are. 10% would be brilliant but who knows. I know I probably wouldn't answer honestly if asked about my sexuality.
Although, after today I'm a bit more hopeful about finding someone, at some point. I actually saw a lesbian couple at Tesco! They had their hands around each other and no one even noticed! That made me so happy (and hopeful)!:icon_bigg

 

Sexuality is a difficult thing to quantify owing to truthfulness of responses, how people identify and knowledge of non-heterosexual orientations. It is entirely plausible that unless you know the right questions and understand the culture surrounding certain individuals you'll unknowingly skew the results of any participant based research. There are issues with the various methodologies employed when investigating rates of minority sexual orientations, and these are issues that are rife in the social sciences.

It's like polls/questionnaires/whatever into drinking habits; they suffer significantly from both people who are motivated to answer and those who modify their answers so that their responses are more socially acceptable. I'm always far more interested in the statistics behind the percentages, to see what additional information was requested from respondents to identify trends in the background of individuals who actually respond/participate. There are all sorts of ways in which researchs can extrapolate the results, but it is tricky to do when questionnaires are largely based on Western perspectives which do not necessarily translate well across the world.

 

I've seen studies ranging from 1% to 20% depending on the exact questions and population studied. I think the 3-4% is probably the safest bet at this point if you're trying to figure out what the odds of meeting other LBGTQ are, but I don't think this necessarily represents the real rate of non-heterosexuality and non-cisgenderism.