Question; Looking for facts and figures

fh041205

I'd be interested to find out what percentage of Ireland in particular is gay. Or at least claims to be gay, or even is supposed to be gay.

I've found curiously little information online for this. Its not included in census information nor do the central statistics office hold, or attempt to gather any information on the subject. Just seems like something that would have been researched in depth by now, I'm surprised that it hasn't.

Anyone know any sources for this kind of stuff. Even general world or American sources would be interesting. I've read claims of anything between 2% and 10% which is quite a gap.

rainbow kirby

Wikipedia: Demographics of sexual orientation
Check out the references, there are links to quite a few surveys done.

baby and crumble

There is a huge gap because any data on the subject is, by necessity, self-reporting. Researchers in general can't do observation studies... well, maybe sometimes. :P

When I was writing up my Masters thesis which was on the subject I found report by the Gay Mens Health Project pretty good for basic demographics, however that was obviously a biased study since it only concerned men. It has been researched, but like I said it's dependent on people telling the truth, which some people won't be doing because of fear.

The 10% thing originates from the work of Kinsey back in the day.

Annasopra

Well it would be very difficult to do on for example a census cause parents usually fill out forms and lots of people are not out

Chuchoter

Is the 10% thing does that include people who have had gay experiences and are really straight or just gay people. What about bisexuals, are they in the 10%? Because 10% always sounded really big to me.

baby and crumble

far as i remember the 10% was an non heterosexual contact/experience.

fh041205

zoegh wrote: »

The 10% thing originates from the work of Kinsey back in the day.

I believe you're right there. Although he based it entirely on the prison population he dealt with who were all sex offenders IIRC. So the 10% can't really be extended any further than that very small group. It would seem foolish to conclude from his research that 10% of the general populous is gay or LGBT even.

Johnnymcg wrote: »

Well it would be very difficult to do on for example a census cause parents usually fill out forms and lots of people are not out

True but it would at least give a basement figure and provide a lower bound for the actual figure which would clearly be much higher.

I actually had a squint at the wiki page just after I posted this thread, don't know why I didn't go there first. Makes interesting reading I must say. Especially the Australian one, 2% gay, 20% have same-sex attractions.

It just strikes me as something that would have been researched and hypothesised to death by now but it hasn't been.

Aard

I'd take figures from more "liberal" countries as the most reliable. The Wiki page lists Norway as around 3%. As a previous poster said, this gives a good idea of the baseline figure. It seems that in cities, it is closer to 10%.

Other figures that might help include the number of same-sex couples in the country, which is iirc around 2,000.

TylerIE

I recall figures from Christian groups in the States which were compiled through anonomous surveys... They showed about 13% of males and 9% of females... They also cited that many of the surveys which showed lower figures were from face to face interviews. I cant find the original now but hopefully will...

Indeed even in Ireland how many closeted people will describe themselves as homosexual on the census when its a neighbour doing it?

Donnaghm

lst wrote: »

I recall figures from Christian groups in the States which were compiled through anonomous surveys... They showed about 13% of males and 9% of females... They also cited that many of the surveys which showed lower figures were from face to face interviews. I cant find the original now but hopefully will...

Indeed even in Ireland how many closeted people will describe themselves as homosexual on the census when its a neighbour doing it?

Indeed, and how many people's mams put their LGB offspring down as heterosexual. A ****load I'd imagine.

Dwn Wth Vwls

I think it'll be a few more decades before there's a more accurate figure. There are so many people with same sex attractions that will just never ever admit it officially. Someone who is 90% straight is not going to tell people, because nobody will believe them that it's only 10%.

dan719

fh041205 wrote: »

I believe you're right there. Although he based it entirely on the prison population he dealt with who were all sex offenders IIRC. So the 10% can't really be extended any further than that very small group. It would seem foolish to conclude from his research that 10% of the general populous is gay or LGBT even.



True but it would at least give a basement figure and provide a lower bound for the actual figure which would clearly be much higher.

I actually had a squint at the wiki page just after I posted this thread, don't know why I didn't go there first. Makes interesting reading I must say. Especially the Australian one, 2% gay, 20% have same-sex attractions.

It just strikes me as something that would have been researched and hypothesised to death by now but it hasn't been.

Typical Mathematician talk.

rainbow kirby

dan719 wrote: »

Typical Mathematician talk.

Nothing wrong with mathematician talk :pac:;)

kisaragi

How many people in the population are considered homosexual or bisexual really depends on what definition you use... e.g. :

"Further, considering homosexual behavior and homosexual attraction as different but overlapping dimensions of homosexuality, we find 20.8, 16.3, and 18.5% of males, and 17.8, 18.6, and 18.5% of females in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France report either homosexual behavior or homosexual attraction since age 15"

and

"Examination of homosexual behavior separately finds that 6.2, 4.5, and 10.7% of males and 3.6, 2.1, and 3.3% of females in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, respectively, report having had sexual contact with someone of the same sex in the previous 5 years"

(both from - http://www.springerlink.com/content/qq42716198161858/)

So you could say from that study that 16-21% of people were at least bisexual, in attraction or action, at some point since age 15, and 2-10% are actively homosexual.

Most scientists consider sexuality to be fluid so it's kind of hard to pinpoint the number of people who ARE gay/bisexual, but it seems like a reliable estimate is about 5-10% for men and 2-4% for women.

Donnaghm

How do we explain that general discrepancy in instances of homosexuality?

fh041205

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Nothing wrong with mathematician talk :pac:;)

Damn straight theres not!;) Btw Dan this is statistics, everyone knows its not real maths!:D

The only way you could do it if you ask me would be whatever sexuality people claim to be. Any other way gets messy and probably less accurate in the end. The method of collecting the figures can be discussed at length, and should be. But its not even been collected is the thing that gets to me.

I did see a study the other say that claimed 1/3 of teens (possibly only males) in the USA have had at least one homosexual experience before they leave high school.

Annasopra

These UK reports may be of interest

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/nojournal/measuring-sexual-identity-report.pdf

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/23/gay-bisexual-population-uk

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/relationships/8020574/Gay-population-much-lower-than-believed-first-official-figures-show.html