Poll: What percentage of people are LGBT?

[username sucks]

I'm asking just out of curiosity: what percentage of people are LGBT in the world? I have seen many wildly different estimates, from as low as 0.5% to as high as 25% of the population, so I figured that I can get some good, trustworthy answers from strangers on the internet.

Internet strangers, I ask you to use all of your Science! Find me a study or survey or whatever that has an accurate estimate, one that accounts for people not admitting to being LGBT yet doesn't overestimate! Find me the perfect data for the sole purpose of satasfying my curiosity! ! Mwahahahaha!
*clears throat*

Since I'm fairly certain that someone will answer my main question in the first few replies, here are some additional questions for discussion. You don't need to answer them if you don't feel comfortable doing so, obviously.

The question in the poll, because I want to know how many people are LGBT on this site, too.
About how many of your friends and family do you know to be LGBT?
How tolerant are people of LGBT people where you're from?

Edit: I forgot to answer my own questions. Derp.
I answered "yes" in the poll. I'm a gay dude.
Nobody I know of in my family, but I'd say over half of my friends are LGBT.
Out here in California, people are pretty tolerant. I haven't personally had anyone take any issue with me being gay yet, but I know others who have had insults thrown at them from complete strangers, and others who have lost friends since coming out. It could be better, but it could also be a lot worse.

Edit 2: As this is an LGBT friendly site, and a topic about LGBT stuff, there will be heavy bias in the poll so I don't expect a huge breakthrough where all the questions I asked would be answered with absolute certainty, I wanted to start a discussion. Also, I understood that the poll would be inaccurate, but that doesn't mean I wasn't curious about what the results would be.

 

[madwarper]

what percentage of people are LGBT in the world?

Impossible to know. Well, without a) taking an exact census of the world's population and b) finding out how many are LBGT. Which of course also assumes that they would willing out themselves, in case they live in a country/community that is hostile to LBGT (Russia, Middle East, etc.)

So, if you're looking for a hard number, I doubt you'll ever find it. You'll have to make due with rough guesstimations.

 

[username sucks]

what percentage of people are LGBT in the world?

Impossible to know. Well, without a) taking an exact census of the world's population and b) finding out how many are LBGT. Which of course also assumes that they would willing out themselves, in case they live in a country/community that is either hostile to LBGT (Russia, Middle East, etc.)

So, if you're looking for a hard number, I doubt you'll ever find it. You'll have to make due with rough guesstimations.

I know. I kinda said all that already in my second paragraph, although with quite a bit of sarcasm. I just want to see some Science! And different reasonings for different estimations and all that.

 

[madwarper]

And different reasonings for different estimations and all that.

I'd assume that there's some personal bias involved by whomever is making the guesstimation.

As in, someone who was not in favor of LBGT might want to show it as an abnormality and tend to have low percentage. And, on the other hand, someone in favor of LBGT might want to show that being LBGT isn't as abnormal and tend have a higher percentage.

Frankly, I don't give a toss. Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of who they fancy or how they envision themselves. And, any judgements on them should be made on the content of their character.

Though, to answer the questions in your OP;

About how many of your friends and family do you know to be LGBT?

To the best of my knowledge, none are. Though, there was a girl who (I assume she fancied me, but I could never tell) tried to include me in her group of friends, of which her best friend told me he was gay.

How tolerant are people of LGBT people where you're from?

With a city as big as Philly, it's a mixed bag. Of course, there are some homophobic bags of dicks. But, the city has also been putting out commercials specifically aimed at "gay tourism", of which they have been of mixed quality [http://www.phillymag.com/news/2013/09/06/richfield-philadelphia-gay-tourism-ad/]

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

For friends? A decent number are lesbians.
In terms of tolerance from where I am from... Lithuania is pretty intolerant. I think a few weeks ago the right for gay couples to marry was negated, and I've heard quite a few unpleasant conversations in my time(ranging from people being assholes to downright delectable). Though that is my own experience, and may not be representative of the entirety of my country, but I could probably name a good amount of people who could be called intolerant.

I currently live in the UK though, which is accepting

As for raw statistics in the world... my guess would be around 30% or so? It's difficult to gauge since there are quite a few countries that are averse to the idea that some people may be LGBT, so it'd be difficult to gather information. Quite a few prominent artists throughout history were homosexual though, so it's not an outlandish idea to assume that about a third could be LGBT.

 

[username sucks]

And different reasonings for different estimations and all that.

I'd assume that there's some personal bias involved by whomever is making the guesstimation.

As in, someone who was not in favor of LBGT might want to show it as an abnormality and tend to have low percentage. And, on the other hand, someone in favor of LBGT might want to show that being LBGT isn't as abnormal and tend have a higher percentage.

Frankly, I don't give a toss. Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of who they fancy or how they envision themselves. And, any judgements on them should be made on the content of their character.

It wouldn't really make much difference to me no matter how many people are LGBT, I just had a sudden onset of curiosity and I want to know! I don't care if it's pretty much impossible to get an accurate answer, I still want one!

 

[username sucks]

30%

New record! Before now, the highest estimation I've heard was 25%. And your justification seems pretty good, so you win! What do you win, you ask? Nothing!

Seriously though, thank you for that response. I could see it being that high of a number too, since more than half of my friends in real life are LGBT.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

30%

New record! Before now, the highest estimation I've heard was 25%. And your justification seems pretty good, so you win! What do you win, you ask? Nothing!

Seriously though, thank you for that response. I could see it being that high of a number too, since more than half of my friends in real life are LGBT.

Yay?

I just assume that a siginificant portion are. There are numerous animal species that do feature homosexual or bisexual relations, so its a fair assumption to make.

Though as Stephen Fry pointed out, "Humanity is the only species which experiences homophobia. Now who's 'natural', eh?".

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Double post'd

 

[DisasterSoiree]

Three to five percent of the population probably fall into the L and G categories; perhaps another .5% are genuine members of the T category; and there may be as much as twelve percent of the population on top of that who are bisexual in a sense that goes beyond situational sexuality (attention whoring at parties, for instance). In other words, I'd suggest a range for all categories between ~15.5-17% of the population. The percentage of asexuals, as well as modern... constructs like 'genderqueer', is negligible, and lower yet for authentic cases - perhaps one in one hundred thousand. These people are more typically hipstersexual [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hipstersexual].

Americans tend to estimate the number as being much higher, as much as a quarter of the population. This is stupid and they are dumb.

 

[Silvanus]

Voted.

I believe it's higher than people generally think (partly because a great number of LGBT people do not act any differently from straight people, but people often expect them to, so may assume only people they see with certain mannerisms are LGBT). That said, I'd be very surprised if it was as high as 20%.

If I were to estimate, I'd say perhaps 15%, including bisexuals with a preference for the opposite sex (which is probably a fairly sizeable category).

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the percentage within the gamer community/ forum community was higher than the percentage in the general population.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

I am bisexual. Although recently I heard that I am pan-sexual? Because I am attracted to anyone, including those who are trans. I thought that's what it meant to be bisexual, so I am confused by that.

The difference as I understand it, bi implies two or more (but not necessarily all), while pan implies all without exceptions. Obviously this is no longer (or may never have been) the case and if there is a line, it's certainly becoming blurred.

OT:
How many of my friends and family?
Sadly I'm not sure, my family has some very religious background and if any of them are LGBT, they haven't said anything.

As for acceptance where I live, it's mixed, but I like to think more on the accepting side rather than the other way around.

 

[Batou667]

Voted, and a bit surprised by the current stats, although the sample size is pretty small still. I think there's a bit of bias at play here, i.e. people who identify LGBT are more likely to look at the thread (and vote) than those who aren't.

 

[CrystalViolet]

I'm not even going to try to estimate how many people in the world are LGBT because there's basically no way of knowing.

I'm bi but I'm far more attracted to girls than to guys and I have pretty specific tastes. Those tastes are just a bit broader in women than in men. Weirdly enough I'm actually attracted to pretty feminine women and pretty masculine men.

Among my family I'm the only LGBT person that I know of. I have a few LGBT friends but they certainly wouldn't be in the majority. Like, 5-10% maybe? That's without thinking too much about it though.

As for where I'm from it's kind of a difficult question because I was military brat and a nomad, mostly jumping from international school to international school. I was always an outsider on the periphery of most of the cultures I lived in so it was kind of hard for me to tell. I'm originally from Israel where younger people were mostly tolerant. Not so much in the army but I kind of kept it a secret. I never really had any issues in any of the other countries I lived in. I had a feeling some of my colleagues harboured some homophobic attitudes when was in the police but they never said anything because bullying is taken very seriously.

 

[The Lunatic]

On the whole population?

Pretty low. 5% at most. Most figures I've seen say about 3%.

On the internet? Quite a few of us. The internet tends to attract people who are liberal, LGBT people tend to support liberal ideologies due to the inequalities of various issues during our lives thus far.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

The question in the poll, because I want to know how many people are LGBT on this site, too.

Bi. If polysexual was a thing then I would probably identify as that since I dislike the fact that bisexual has different meanings from person to person.

About how many of your friends and family do you know to be LGBT?

In my family, the only people I know of are my aunt and one of my cousins-in-law.

Quite a few of my friends are LGBT+, but that is because I'm part of the society at my University. At most I'd have probably met 5-10 of them if it wasn't for that, and even then most of those would be friends of my mum.

How tolerant are people of LGBT people where you're from?

I haven't experienced any harassment myself, but most people if they met me in the street would probably think I was straight. Generally Bristol is accepting: the MP for my constituency is openly gay, the former Lord-Mayor was openly gay, and Bristol Pride is one of the largest pride events in the South-West. But I have known about and personally seen a fair amount of transphobic comments, so it can definitely improve in that sense.

I've never lost any friends or family connections due to coming out.

 

[Someone Depressing]

From various polls that I've read, around 15%-30%, or even as low as 3%-7%. Of course, it's impossible to really know, because everyone's identity changes. People are still learning about their own sexuality, some people attracted to the same sex don't consider them LGBT, so on, so forth.

This site - and a few other gaming news sites - is pretty LGBT positive and has a few gay members, and you know how the GIFT works, so people will consider themselves gay online but haven't come out yet, making it even harder to estimate.