Number here identifying as gay/bisexual lowest in UK

A SMALLER proportion of people in Northern Ireland identified themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual than elsewhere in the UK, a report has found.

Some 1.2% of people here described themselves as LGB in 2018. The UK average was 2.2%, which has increased from 1.6% in 2014.

The figures emerged in a bulletin published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

According to the report, twothirds (68.7%) of UK people aged 16 and over who identified as LGB said they were not married or in a civil partnership — double the proportion of those who identified as straight or heterosexual and single.

The ONS said this could be because younger people are more likely to identify as LGB while the average age at which people are getting married is increasing. And legal unions for samesex couples have only recently become available in the UK.

The ONS also said more couples are choosing to cohabit before or instead of marriage.

Civil partnerships were introduced for same-sex couples in the UK in December 2005 and same-sex marriage has been available in England, Wales and Scotland since 2014 and in Northern Ireland from 2020.

Since 2014, the proportion of married LGB couples in the UK increased from 0.8% to 7.3% while those in civil partnerships decreased from 12.3% to 6.5%.

This suggests that an increasing number of those who do want to formalise their relationship are turning to marriage.

Sophie Sanders, from the ONS’ population statistics division, said: “People in their late teens and early twenties are more likely to identify as LGB than older age groups.

“Meanwhile, more than twothirds of the LGB population are single and have never married or entered into a civil partnership.

“This reflects the younger age structure of this population, the changing attitudes of the general population to marriage and the fact that legal unions have only been recently available for samesex couples.”

The data was taken from the annual population survey (APS), which collects information on self-perceived sexual identity from people in households aged 16 and over in the UK.

It shows the overall proportion of the UK population identifying as heterosexual or straight has decreased from 95.3% in 2014 to 94.6% in 2018. This is the largest year on year change since 2014 when the data set began.