Sexual orientation: 2018

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 Annual Population Survey data.

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

Main points

• In 2018, 95.2% of people in Wales aged 16 and over identified as heterosexual/straight. This compares to 1.5% who identified as gay/lesbian, 0.8% who identified as bisexual, and 0.8% who identified as other. Whereas 1.7% 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 1.6% in 2014 to 2.3% in 2018.
• Of those people in Wales who identified as gay/lesbian/bisexual, over two thirds (70.6%) were between 16 and 44 years of age. This compares with under half (43.0%) of the overall population.
• Around twice as many males as females identified as gay/lesbian whilst just over 60% 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, 60.4% lived in South East Wales (compared with 48.4% of the overall population). Whereas 13.9% lived in North Wales (compared with 22.3% of the population).
• People identifying as gay/lesbian/bisexual were over three times as likely to live in a large town as opposed to a small town or village.