What percentage of men are homosexual or bisexual, and what percentage of female are bisexual or lesbian?

Question

Just want stats or any links to studies that were done. I read in another question that the total gay population is 10% but I would like to know specifically a different between male and females. Any relevant information would be appreciated.

Answer 1

These are difficult stats to get because of the intense biases one way or the other. And apparently it has varied historically and is very dependent on cultures.

For example in pre-Christian Greece the percentages of homosexual men could have been as high as 80 to 90 % in Athens. Plato's Dialogs cite several instances of younger men being physically attracted towards Socrates, which must have been amusing. In the city state of Sparta homosexuality and pedophilia was government policy and men slept with boys for their pleasure as part of their military way of life.

After the Christianization of Greece probably in part from the puritanical attitudes of the early church leaders acting out the wishes of St. Paul, the percentages appear to have dropped significantly to whatever thay are today. This change in percentages must have occurred over hundreds of years.

Homosexuals tend to exagerate their percentages in American society. Ten percent is probably an exageration. It is most likely more like 3 to 4%. In the United States during the 2004 elections, exit polls indicated 4% of all voters self-identified as gay or lesbian. In some parts of the country it could be much less, and in cities like San Francisco it could actually be 20%. A recent study found 40% of single men in San Francisco were homosexual. The 2000 census in the USA indicated that about 0.99% of couples were same-sex. A survey in Canada indicated that only 1% of its population is homosexual. Homosexuality appears to be more common in Muslim societies.

This variation in percentages tends to indicate that there is an environmental factor to whether a person is homosexual or not. And the significant change in percentages of homosexuals in Greek society indicates that it is a behavior that can be altered, perhaps not in the individual, but over many generations as an acceptable mode of sexual expression. This indicates that there is a locking in of sexual orientation at some early age prior to puberty.

Percentages of lesbians appears to be lower than for homosexual men. One study indicated that only 0.32% of women were lesbians. But that study was from a religious organization and such organization are notorious about providing disinformation and outright lies about homosexuals. Unfortunately homosexual organizations tend to also provide disinformation in regards to their precentages and tend to exagerate their numbers with the hopes of achieving political influence.

Answer 2

The Kinsey Institute (which has been widely cited as the originator of the 10% statistic) has a great review of more than 20 studies trying to ascertain percentages of gay and lesbian members of the population. Here's the link:

http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/resources/bib-homoprev.html

The problems you face is (a) defining homosexuality & bisexuality and (b) finding a way to gain an accuate sample, particularly of bisexuality.

Western culture now seems to have embraced sexual orientation as both a sexual attraction and an emotional affection toward one gender or the other, or in the case of bisexuality, both genders. This is relatively new, since sexuality was culturally defined as recently as the 1960s as behavior.

The problem with giving exact percentages is the flux in definitions. The census looked for same-sex couples living in one household. Kinsey looked for behavior. Others try to measure attraction. Some look at a life-long timeframe, while others look at the last 2-3 years. Two things become clear in these studies (a) human sexuality is complex and extremely interesting to study and (b) there will never be a definitive, universally accepted answer to the question, "What are the percentages of straight, gay, and bisexual members of the population?"

Answer 3

I can't say exact percentages because not everyone has come oout, so the true statistics of those in the LGBT community are not approximaite. Here's what I think... Gay - 30-40% (not many guys are open about their sexuality) Lesbian - 40-50% (women are more open about their sexuality) Bisexual - 50-60% (there are A LOT of teens expereimenting these days) Transexual - 20% (I don't see that many transexuals) Overall... LGBT - 45% of the population Straight - 55% of the population This makes me feel like gay rights should definitely be a primary concern because about half of the population is gay and lesbian.

Answer 4

There has not been an official study of this since Kinsey in the 1950s. And, his was not really an official study. More of a guess of 10%.

Would make a really good grad school project.

Would also make for a good question to be included on the Census form to go along with race, sex, age, etc. etc. etc. All this talk about gay civil rights and nobody knows for certain what percentage of Americans are homos.

Answer 5

Wow, I think that in males, there are 15% who are attracted to men, 9% of those are into men and the other 6% are into both.
For females, it is 25%. That there are 13% who are gay and 12% who are into both.
This is what I figure to be the percentage.

Answer 6

I've heard many " expert sources" ,doctors clinicians,etc, quoted on TV and "legitimate" Print say it's about 10%. I don't know if it's true , but it seems to be the general consensus. Personally I would guess it's around 1 in 15, not that I give a ****, It's just my lay mans opinion based on my fiends, etc.

Answer 7

I heard that you are right about men ~10% although you've got to figure they are heavily concentrated in cities with "scenes". (Yuck, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit...)

I think for Women it's a bit higher - say 15% - $25% range? Not sure and I think I read this in Maxim so the origin of the info is a bit suspect...

Answer 8

I read in the past men are about 10% women are about 5%. That feels about right for the people I know. One more thing,"Not that there is anything wrong with it".

Answer 9

I'm a female and I'm bisexual, My b/f knows and he dosent have any problems about it.. Just as long as he watches, which both me and my female partner know and enjoys him watching.

Answer 10

I can hardly believe that there have been TEN responses so far, and no one knew the correct answer. I almost didn't bother looking at this question, thinking that someone must have already given the correct answer.

2.5% of males are homosexual.
1.2% of females are homosexual.
(Therefore, 1.85% of people are homosexual in total)

Those numbers are based on very large samplings of people.