1.6% described themselves as LGB in 2016

PEOPLE in the East Midlands are some of the least likely in Britain to describe themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual.

Some 1.6 per cent of people in the region told the official Annual Population Survey that they were lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) in 2016.

This was equivalent to one person in every 63 in the East Midlands - the joint third-lowest share in the UK.

It would mean there were about 62,000 people in the region who said they were lesbian, gay or bisexual in 2016.

The East of England and the North East were the only areas with lower of proportions of people describing themselves as LGB.

On the other hand 92.7 per cent of people in the East Midlands said they were heterosexual.

Some 0.9 per cent of people described their sexual orientation as ‘other’ while 4.9 per cent said they did not know or declined to answer the question.

The same survey’s results in 2015 showed that 1.4 per cent of people in the region described themselves as LGB while 93.5 per cent said they were heterosexual.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that two per cent of the UK population aged 16 or over were LGB, or slightly more than one million people.

This was up from 1.7 per cent in 2015, an increase the ONS said was statistically significant.

Some 93.4 per cent of the population said they were heterosexual.

Men were more likely to identify as LGB than women, with 2.3 per cent of men saying so compared to 1.6 per cent of women.

The proportion of people saying they were lesbian, gay or bisexual decreased with age, with 4.1 per cent of 16 to 24 year olds saying so compared to 0.7 per cent aged 65 or over. London had the largest share of LGB people of any region in the UK, at 2.7 per cent.