Sexual orientation: 2017

The main points below are drawn from the latest bulletin as well as our additional analysis of a pooled dataset which combines 3 years of APS data.

Due to small sample sizes, care should be taken in interpreting these figures.

Main points

• In 2017, 95.0% of people in Wales aged 16 and over identified as heterosexual/straight. This compares to 1.3%(r) who identified as gay/lesbian, 0.7% who identified as bisexual, and 0.5% who identified as other. Whereas 2.5% of people did not know, answer or respond to the question.
• Over the last five years, the proportion of the Welsh population identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) has steadily increased from 1.3% in 2012 to 2.0% in 2017.
• Of those people in Wales who identified as gay/lesbian/bisexual, over two thirds (69.2%) were between 16 and 45 years of age. This compares with under half (43.2%) of the overall population.
• Around twice as many males as females identified as gay/lesbian whilst just over two thirds of people who identified as bisexual were females.
• People who identified as gay/lesbian/bisexual were more likely to be single than married or in a civil partnership.
• Of those people who identified as gay/lesbian/bisexual, 61.9% lived in South East Wales (compared with 48.3% of the overall population). Whereas 14.8% lived in North Wales (compared with 22.4% of the population).
• People identifying as gay/lesbian/bisexual were three times as likely to live in a large town as opposed to a small town or village.

(r) Revised on 26 June 2019.