Sexual orientation UK 2023

30th January 2025

Annual Population Survey (APS) estimates have been affected by increased volatility, resulting from smaller sample sizes, meaning that estimates of change should be treated with additional caution; APS estimates have also not yet been reweighted to more recent population estimates, so estimates of levels should be treated with additional caution, while estimates of percentages remain more robust.

Of the UK household population aged 16 years and over, 93.6% identified as heterosexual or straight in 2023; this is down from 94.6% in 2018.

Of the UK household population aged 16 years and over, 3.8% identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) in 2023; this is up from 2.2% in 2018.

Younger people were more likely to identify as LGB than older people; around 1 in 10 (10.4%) of those aged 16 to 24 years identified as LGB, compared with around 1 in 100 (0.9%) of those aged 65 years and over.

Most people who identified as LGB in 2023 had never married or formed a civil partnership (77.2%), compared with 36.8% of people who identified as heterosexual or straight.

Men were more likely to identify as LGB (4.2%) than women (3.4%); specifically, men were more likely to identify as "gay or lesbian" (2.8%) than women (1.2%), while women were more likely to identify as "bisexual" (2.2%) than men (1.5%).

In this bulletin, we explore the sexual orientation of people living in households in the UK based on responses to the sexual identity question in the 2023 Annual Population Survey (APS). People aged 16 years and over were asked this question.

We discuss possible reasons for changes in sexual orientation in 2023, compared with 2018. We make five-year comparisons, rather than year-on-year, because the APS data typically vary between years as the survey sample changes. We are better able to identify trends in the data by comparing across a longer timescale.

An estimated 2.1 million people (3.8% of the UK household population) identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) in 2023. This was an increase from 1.2 million (2.2%) over the five years since 2018.

Read the full ONS report HERE