How many LGBTQ+ people are there in the UK?

As an LGBTQ+ friendly business, knowing how many LGBTQ+ people there are in the UK can help you guide your business. It can also affirm your dedication to the LGBTQ+ community to see how many people are really out there.

I’ve compiled data from the 2021 censuses for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to give you an idea of how many LGBTQ+ people are in the UK. I’ve included data for sexual orientation and gender identity.

I hope these insights help your business to be more inclusive. Consider how to support the LGBTQ+ community when marketing and creating products and services.

England and Wales census 2021

The England and Wales census 2021 was the first census to include voluntary questions on gender identity and sexual orientation. I’ve split the census into two areas, England and Wales, to aid local businesses as much as possible.

The census data comes from the Office for National Statistics, using Nomis.

How many LGBTQ+ people are there in England?

There are upwards of 1 million LGBTQ+ people living in England, according to the sexual orientation and gender identity data from the 2021 census. Given there’s a lot of overlap between sexual orientation and gender identity, I’ve estimated that there are around 1,457,000 people who are LGBTQ+ based on data for sexual orientation. There are an estimated 252,000 people whose gender identity differs from their sex registered at birth.

While 89.4% of people in England answered that they are straight or heterosexual, a further 7.5% of people did not answer the question on sexual orientation. The largest group of self-described LGBTQ+ people are gay or lesbian, at 1.5% of the population.

In numbers, this translates to over 700,000 people self-describing as gay or lesbian in England.

Bisexual people are second, at almost 600,000 people or 1.3% of the population. Pansexual, asexual, queer, and other sexual orientations totalled over 157,000 people, or 0.4% of the population.

The exact statistics are reported as follows:

• Gay or Lesbian – 709,704 (1.5%)
• Bisexual – 591,690 (1.3%)
• Pansexual – 45,435 (0.1%)
• Asexual – 26,614 (0.1%)
• Queer – 13,928 (0.0%)
• All other sexual orientations – 72,380 (0.2%)

It’s important to note that people who didn’t answer the question at all may include people who are questioning or did not feel safe giving an answer. However, the number would also include people who did not want to give an answer generally, who boycotted the question, or didn’t answer the question.

When it comes to gender identity, 93.5% of the population said that their gender identity is the same as their sex registered at birth, and a further 6% didn’t answer the question.

0.2% of the population, totalling almost 114,000 people, answered that their gender identity is different from their sex registered at birth, but no specific identity was given.

Over 90,000 trans people (self-described as trans men and trans women) answered the census, with almost 1,000 more trans men. It’s really interesting to see how close the numbers are for trans identities.

0.1% of the population, or almost 29,000 people, self-described as non-binary, with a further 17,000 people of other gender identities.

The exact statistics are reported as follows:

• Gender identity different from sex registered at birth but no specific identity given – 113,760 (0.2%)
• Trans woman – 45,684 (0.1%)
• Trans man – 46,513 (0.1%)
• Non-binary – 28,710 (0.1%)
• All other gender identities – 17,177 (0.0%)

I don’t know why Nomis ranks trans women as higher than trans men, but I’ve included the same order as the dataset does. You can see all of the same data by following this link to the Nomis 2021 census area profile for England.

How many LGBTQ+ people are there in Wales?

Using the Nomis 2021 census area profile for Wales, there are an estimated 75,500 LGBTQ+ people in Wales. This number is most representative of people who answered that their sexual orientation is anything but straight or heterosexual. Around 10,000 people in Wales reported that their gender identity differs from their sex registered at birth.

In Wales, 89.4% of the population self-described as straight or heterosexual, while a further 7.6% didn’t answer the question on sexual orientation.

Gay and lesbian people accounted for over 38,000 people, or 1.5% of the population, closely followed by bisexual people at almost 32,000 people and thus 1.2% of the population.

Pansexual, asexual, queer, and all other sexual orientations totalled approximately 0.3% of the population at over 6,700 people.

The exact statistics are reported as follows:

• Gay or Lesbian – 38,101 (1.5%)
• Bisexual – 31,814 (1.2%)
• Pansexual – 2,590 (0.1%)
• Asexual – 1,558 (0.1%)
• Queer – 583 (0.0%)
• All other sexual orientations – 2,220 (0.1%)

For gender identity, 93.3% of the Welsh population answered that their gender identity is the same as their sex registered at birth. A further 6.3% didn’t answer the question.

Over 4,000 people answered that their gender identity differs from their sex registered at birth but didn’t include a specific identity.

The numbers for specific gender identities are much closer in Wales than England, with 0.3% of the population self-describing as trans or non-binary. That’s over 1,900 trans men, 1,800 trans women, and 1,500 non-binary people in Wales.

There’s a further almost 900 people of all other gender identities.

The exact statistics are reported as follows:

• Gender identity different from sex registered at birth but no specific identity given – 4,015 (0.2%)
• Trans woman – 1,888 (0.1%)
• Trans man – 1,922 (0.1%)
• Non-binary – 1,548 (0.1%)
• All other gender identities – 897 (0.0%)

Northern Ireland census 2021

The Northern Ireland 2021 census took place around the same time as the England and Wales census. It also included a new question on sexual orientation, but did not include anything on gender identity.

Data for sexual orientation has been compiled from the available spreadsheets from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. I have not included percentages of population for this data.

How many LGBTQ+ people are there in Northern Ireland?

There are over 30,000 people in Northern Ireland who identify as LGBTQ+, based on data on sexual orientation.

For the question on sexual orientation, over 17,000 people self-described as gay or lesbian. A further 11,000 people self-described as bisexual.

Some of the highlights of the statistics include:

• Gay or lesbian – 17,713
• Bisexual – 11,305
• Pansexual – 617
• Asexual – 400
• Queer – 148

All other sexual orientations include multiple orientations, trisexual (with 51 people self-describing), fluid, confused, and questioning.

You can access the data by downloading the main statistics sexual orientation tables on the NISRA website.

Scotland census 2022

The Scotland census took place a year later in 2022, and also included new questions on gender identity and sexual orientation. At the time of writing this blog post, the data for Scotland’s 2022 census hadn’t been formally published, so this will be updated in the future.