Estimates and characteristics of LGBTI+ populations in Australia

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Data on gender, trans and gender diverse, sexual orientation, and people born with variations of sex characteristics

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Reference period
2022
Released
19/12/2024
Next release Unknown
First release

Key statistics

  • An estimated 4.5% of Australians 16 years and over are LGBTI+
  • About 0.3% of Australians 16 years and over report they know they were born with variations of sex characteristics
  • LGB+ Australians 16 years and over make up about 3.6% of the population
  • About 0.9% of Australians 16 years and over are trans and gender diverse, including trans men, trans women and non-binary people

The estimates and characteristics in this analysis are subject to limitations and error due to, for example, sample size and non-sampling error. These data are experimental and not population benchmarks and should be used with caution.

Readers should note measures of sampling error associated with the results presented in this article. Error bars in graphs illustrate the range within which we are 95% confident that the true value lies.

This analysis only includes two figures (the estimated number and the estimated proportion of the population) for people who report they know they were born with variations of sex characteristics. This is because the sample size of the dataset limits the reliability of any further data disaggregation.

Additionally, the information on people born with variations of sex characteristics is complex to collect because only a small proportion of the population have variations of sex characteristics and some respondents may be unaware of the concepts behind the question or unfamiliar with the terminology[1]. This may lead to some respondents mistakenly answering yes when they do not have variations of sex characteristics. Conversely, some respondents who were born with variations may have answered no to the question if they were not aware of variations or did not believe their characteristics were included in the concepts and terminology of the question. It is not possible to determine whether these scenarios occurred and if so, how often.

Please see the Methodology for more information.

Introduction

This analysis is the first time the ABS has compiled a set of experimental estimates of LGBTI+ populations in Australia, specifically of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or use a different term to describe their sexual orientation, trans and gender diverse, and people who were born with variations of sex characteristics.

The estimates and characteristics in this analysis are not population benchmarks, however they can be used to help inform decision making for LGBTI+ populations.

This is the first time ABS has output all the items from the Standard for Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation Variables, 2020 (‘2020 Standard’). Since the introduction of the 2020 Standard, the ABS now have enough data to produce estimates of LGBTI+ populations by combining multiple household surveys into one analysis dataset. This data comes from four ABS household surveys conducted between December 2020 and mid-2023 (National Health Survey, 2022, National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2020–2022, National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey, 2023, and Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, 2022). Methods to combine surveys were refined for the specific nature and context of this analysis and may not be applicable for other collections or analyses.

The ABS would like to thank participants in ABS surveys for contributing to these important findings.

Definitions

LGBTI+ Australians

Around one in twenty (4.5% or 910,600 people) Australians aged 16 years and over are LGBTI+. The proportion of people who are LGBTI+ is highest among young Australians and lowest in older Australians.

  1. Includes people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or use a different term to describe their sexual orientation, trans and gender diverse, and people born with variations of sex characteristics.

The LGBTI+ population has a young age structure, with six in ten (59.4%) LGBTI+ people aged between 16–34 years and 7.8% aged 65 years and over.

  1. Includes people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or use a different term to describe their sexual orientation, trans and gender diverse, and people born with variations of sex characteristics.

Of the estimated 910,600 Australians who are LGBTI+:

  • Eight in ten (80.9%) are gay or lesbian, bisexual or another term for their sexual orientation (LGB+). Almost two in ten (18.0%) are heterosexual (straight).
  • Two in ten (20.1%) are trans and gender diverse. This includes trans men, trans women, non-binary people and people who use a different term for their gender other than man/male or woman/female. Eight in ten (79.9%) are cis (people whose sex recorded at birth and gender are the same).
  • One in fourteen (7.0%) report they know they were born with variations of sex characteristics. Most (91.3%) report they were not born with variations of sex characteristics.
  1. Proportions add to more than 100% because people who are LGB+, people who are trans and gender diverse and people who were born with variations of sex characteristics are not mutually exclusive populations.
  2. Includes people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or use a different term to describe their sexual orientation, trans and gender diverse, and people born with variations of sex characteristics.
  3. Includes people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or who use a different term to describe their sexual orientation.
  4. Trans and gender diverse (trans) includes trans men, trans women and non-binary people.

Sexual orientation

Definitions

An estimated 738,800 Australians aged 16 years and over, or 3.6% of the population, report their sexual orientation as gay, lesbian, bisexual or a different term such as asexual, pansexual or queer (LGB+).

Of all Australians aged 16 years and over:

  • 1.5% (or 315,800 people) are gay or lesbian
  • 1.7% (or 337,100 people) are bisexual, and
  • 0.4% (or 83,700 people) report using a different term to describe their sexual orientation (such as asexual, pansexual or queer).
  1. Includes people who use a different term for their sexual orientation such as asexual, pansexual and queer.

An estimated 94.9% of Australians aged 16 years and over report being heterosexual (straight). Approximately 1.5% of people either reported not knowing their sexual orientation or preferred not to say.

Australians aged 20–24 years are more likely to report an LGB+ sexual orientation than any other age group. One in ten (10.0%) young people aged 20–24 years report an LGB+ sexual orientation, and overall this proportion decreases with age to 0.6% of people aged 75 years and over.

  1. Includes people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or who use a different term to describe their sexual orientation.

The LGB+ population has a young age structure, with over half (52.0%) of all LGB+ people aged 16–29 years and 1.4% aged 75 years and over.

  1. Includes people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or who use a different term to describe their sexual orientation.

The proportion of LGB+ people varies by gender experience:

  • 15.1% of trans men
  • 20.8% of trans women
  • 75.0% of non-binary people
  • 2.9% of cis men, and
  • 3.7% of cis women report an LGB+ sexual orientation.

Non-binary people are more likely to report being an LGB+ sexual orientation (75.0%) than heterosexual (straight) (12.8%). Trans men, trans women, cis men, and cis women are all more likely to report being heterosexual (straight) than an LGB+ sexual orientation.

The most common LGB+ sexual orientations reported by Australians aged 16 years and over are bisexual (1.7%) or gay or lesbian (1.5%). The proportion of people who report these sexual orientations varies with age:

  • People aged 16–24 years are more likely report being bisexual than gay or lesbian (5.7% compared to 1.9%)
  • People aged 25–34 years are equally likely to report being either gay or lesbian or bisexual (2.7% and 2.9%)
  • People aged 35 years and over are slightly more likely to report being gay or lesbian than bisexual (1.2% and 0.5%).
  1. Includes people who use a different term for their sexual orientation such as asexual, pansexual and queer.

Compared to those who report being heterosexual (straight), LGB+ Australians are:

  • more likely to live in Victoria (31.6% compared to 25.6%), and
  • less likely to live in Western Australia (8.4% compared to 10.6%).

These differences remain after adjusting for age.

  1. Includes people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or who use a different term to describe their sexual orientation.

LGB+ men are more likely to live in Major Cities than heterosexual (straight) men (81.0% compared to 74.1%), and less likely to live in Outer Regional and Remote Australia (4.5% compared to 9.5%). These differences remain after adjusting for age.

LGB+ women are also more likely to live in Major Cities than heterosexual (straight) women (78.3% compared to 73.1%). However, after adjusting for age, LGB+ women and heterosexual (straight) women are equally as likely to live in each remoteness area.

  1. Includes people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or who use a different term to describe their sexual orientation.
  2. Remoteness Areas are defined by the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). See Remoteness Areas (abs.gov.au).
  3. Men includes trans men and cis men. Women includes trans women and cis women. Non-binary people could not be reported separately in this analysis due to small sample sizes.
  4. Excludes very remote areas of Australia.

Around two in ten (21.5%) LGB+ Australians were born overseas, and 4.9% speak a language other than English as the main language at home:

  • LGB+ men are more likely to be born overseas than LGB+ women (27.4% compared to 18.8%), and
  • LGB+ men and LGB+ women are equally likely to speak a language other than English (5.9% and 3.9%).
  1. Includes people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or who use a different term to describe their sexual orientation.
  2. Men includes trans men and cis men. Women includes trans women and cis women. Non-binary people could not be reported separately in this analysis due to small sample sizes.
  3. Includes non-binary people, people who use a different term for their gender such as gender fluid, and people who preferred not to say or did not know their gender.

More than three in ten LGB+ men (34.3%) and LGB+ women (38.5%) are married or in a de facto relationship.

Variations of sex characteristics

Definitions

An estimated 63,300 people, or 0.3% of Australians 16 years and over, report they know they were born with variations of sex characteristics.

It is not possible to further describe the characteristics of people who report they know they were born with variations of sex characteristics in this article due to the sample size of the dataset limiting the reliability of any further data disaggregation. Please see the Methodology for further details.

Trans and gender diverse

Definitions

An estimated 178,900 Australians aged 16 years and over, or 0.9% of the population, report a gender that is different to their sex recorded at birth (trans and gender diverse).

Of all Australians aged 16 years and over it is estimated that:

  • 0.3% (or 67,100 people) are trans men
  • 0.3% (or 52,500 people) are trans women, and
  • 0.3% (or 58,500 people) are non-binary people.

Of the estimated 178,900 Australians aged 16 years and over who have a trans experience:

  • 37.5% are trans men
  • 29.3% are trans women, and
  • 32.7% are non-binary people.

People aged 16–24 years are more likely than any other age group to be trans and gender diverse (1.8%).

The trans and gender diverse population has a younger age structure than the cis population, with three in ten (28.4%) trans and gender diverse people aged between 16–24 years and 4.6% aged 75 years and over.

  1. Trans and gender diverse includes trans men, trans women and non-binary people.
  2. Cis gender.

Eight in ten (79.2%) trans and gender diverse people live in Major Cities, and just under one in ten (7.7%) live in Outer Regional and Remote Australia. Trans and gender diverse people are just as likely to live in Outer Regional and Remote Australia as cis people (7.7% and 9.1%, with no statistically significant difference between the proportions). This pattern remains after adjusting for age.

  1. Trans and gender diverse (trans) includes trans men, trans women and non-binary people.
  2. Cis gender.
  3. Remoteness Areas are defined by the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). See Remoteness Areas (abs.gov.au).
  4. Excludes very remote areas of Australia.

Half (50.0%) of trans and gender diverse people are married or in a de facto relationship. After adjusting for age, trans and gender diverse people are just as likely as cis people to be married or in a de facto relationship.

Just under three in ten (28.5%) trans and gender diverse Australians were born overseas and 14.8% speak a language other than English as the main language at home. After adjusting for age, trans and gender diverse people are just as likely as cis people to have been born overseas or speak a language other than English.

How does Australia compare internationally?

The Australian estimates are similar to figures calculated from New Zealand’s 2023 Census data[2]. The New Zealand 2023 Census found 4.2% of the total population aged 15 years and over are LGBTIQ+. An estimated 4.5% of the Australian population aged 16 years and over are LGBTI+.

The same proportion (3.6%) of Australians and New Zealanders are lesbian, gay, bisexual or use a different term to describe their sexual orientation. A slightly smaller proportion of New Zealanders (0.6%) are trans and gender diverse compared with Australians (0.9%).

See the Methodology for more information about international comparisons.

Peer review

The ABS would like to acknowledge the assistance and advice from members of the community including the peer review by:

  • LGBTIQ+ Health Australia, represented by:
    • Nicky Bath, Chief Executive Officer
    • James Zanotto, Policy, Research and Communications Director
    • Ian Down, Policy and Research Lead
  • Professor Adam Bourne, Director, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University
  • Bridget Haire, PhD. Associate Professor, School of Population Health, The Kirby Institute, UNSW
  • Teddy Cook, Independent consultant, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, The Kirby Institute, UNSW
  • Morgan Carpenter, PhD. Associate Professor, University of Sydney School of Public Health; Executive Director, InterAction for Health and Human Rights
  • Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, represented by:
    • David Casey, Director of the Men's, LGBTIQA+, Children and Young People's Health Section, Health Equity Branch 
    • Kayla Jordan, Assistant Secretary, Data and Analytics Branch, Health Economics and Research Division

The ABS greatly values the knowledge, expertise and contributions of these reviewers and thanks them for their time and input.

Data downloads

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LGBTI+ Populations dataset 2022

Data files

Footnotes

  1. P Hegarty and A Smith, ‘Public understanding of intersex: an update on recent findings’, International Journal of Impotence Research, 2023, 35:72-77, doi: 10.1038/s41443-021-00485-w.
  2. Statistics New Zealand, ‘Totals by topic for individuals, (NZ total), 2013, 2018, and 2023 Censuses’, https://explore.data.stats.govt.nz; accessed 12/12/2024.

Methodology

Scope

Includes:

  • all usual residents in Australia aged 16+ years living in private dwellings
  • urban and rural areas in all states and territories, excluding very remote parts of Australia and discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities.

Geography

The data available includes estimates for:

  • Australia
  • states and territories.

Source

Estimates are based on the combined sample of the following:

  • National Health Survey, 2022
  • National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2020–2022
  • Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, 2022
  • National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey, 2023.

Collection method

Most respondents completed a face-to-face interview with an Australian Bureau of Statistics Interviewer.

Concepts, sources and methods

LGBTI+ populations were derived using variables from the Standard for Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation Variables, 2020.

History of changes

Not applicable.

View full methodology

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