Nearly 1 in 10 adults around the globe identify as LGBTQ: survey

About 9 percent of adults from around the world identify themselves as LGBTQ, according to a global survey released Thursday.  

The survey conducted by Ipsos found that 3 percent of those around the world identify themselves as lesbian or gay, 4 percent as bisexual, 0.9 percent as pansexual and 0.9 percent as asexual. The survey noted that those in Generation Z — people born after 1997 — were more than twice as likely to identify as bisexual, pansexual or asexual than millennials and more than four times as likely than those in Generation X and baby boomers.  

Across 30 different countries surveyed, those identifying as LGBTQ range from 4 percent in Peru to 15 percent in Brazil. About 9 percent of survey respondents in the United States identified as LGBTQ, a 1 percent drop since 2021.  

Spain is the country with the highest share of those saying they are gay or lesbian at 6 percent, and Brazil and the Netherlands were most likely to say they are bisexual at 7 percent, according to the survey. The survey noted that Japan was the least likely country to have respondents identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual.  

When asked about their gender, 1 percent of respondents around the globe said they identified as transgender, 1 percent said they were non-binary, gender non-conforming or gender fluid, and 1 percent said they did not identify as a male or female. This includes 6 percent of those in Gen Z, 3 percent of millennials, and 1 percent of baby boomers or those in Gen X.  

The survey noted that LGBTQ visibility has increased in the last two years, with 1 in 2 adults saying that they have a relative, friend or colleague who is gay or lesbian. Moreover, 1 in 4 say the same thing for someone who is bisexual, and 1 in 8 say the same thing for someone who is transgender.  

The survey added that women were more likely to report knowing someone who identified as LGBTQ.  

Average support for allowing legal same-sex marriage was about 56 percent across 30 countries, with the highest percentage in the Netherlands and Portugal at 80 percent. Turkey had the lowest share at 20 percent saying they support same-sex legal marriage. The United States had 54 percent of respondents say they support legal same-sex marriage.  

Ipsos surveyed 22,514 adults between Feb. 17 and March 3. The margins of error varied based on the sample sizes from each country but ranged from plus or minus 3.5 percentage points to plus or minus 5 percentage points.