The Generational Gap in LGBTQ+ Identification

Having surveyed more than 24,000 UK residents between April 2022 and March 2023, Statista Consumer Insights found that 8 percent of UK adults (aged 18 to 64) consider themselves part of the LGBTQ+ community. What’s arguably more interesting though, is the generational gap in LGBTQ+ identification the data reveals.

While 15 percent of respondents born 1995 or later said they considered themselves part of the LGBTQ+ community, the same was true for only 4 percent of respondents born in 1964 or earlier. This is probably a testament to the growing acceptance of different sexual orientations, resulting in the fact that those who came of age lately are much more likely to self-identify as LGBTQ+ than people who were born and raised at a time when divergent sexual orientations were still widely condemned, tabooed or even outlawed.

The generational gap in LGBTQ+ identification is not limited to the UK. Earlier this year, Gallup found that LGBT identification reached an all-time high in the United States in 2022, attributing the ongoing trend to the higher likelihood of young adults to identify as LGBT.