Majority Of LGBTQ+ People In England And Wales Are Not Religious, Census Shows
April 6, 2023The majority of LGBTQ+ people in England and Wales do not describe themselves as religious, according to new figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
The data, which was published on 4 April, is drawn from the 2021 census which asked questions about sexual orientation and gender identity for the first time, according to ‘Gay Times’.
A total of 1.5 million respondents (3.2% of the population aged 16 years or older) said they identified as LGB+, with urban areas seeing the highest proportions of LGBTQ+ people.
Around 748,000 (1.5%) of those who answered said they are either gay or lesbian, only 0.2% more than the 624,000 (1.3%) who described themselves as bisexual.
An additional 165,000 (0.3%) selected “other sexual orientation”.
Approximately 10 categories were used to identify religious beliefs within the census: None, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, other, not answered and does not apply.
Image Credit: Pixabay
More than six in 10 (63%) of lesbian, gay and bisexual people and almost four in 10 (36%) of trans people said they had “no religion”.
This was compared to 37% of the overall population who said they are not religious.
Of the LGBTQ+ people who said they followed a certain religion, Christian was the most common answer at 26% for lesbian, gay and bisexual people and 36% for trans people.
Just 2% of lesbian, gay and bisexual people and 15% of trans people identified as Muslim, while 6% of lesbian, gay and bisexual people and 10% of trans people chose the “other religion” option.
Jayne Ozanne, a gay Christian activist who chairs the Ban Conversion Therapy Coalition, said that the findings are “sadly of no surprise given the way most religions judge, condemn and ostracise LGBT+ people”.
“Whilst it should be remembered that questions regarding sexuality and gender identity were voluntary, with those who are conflicted or nervous about openly self-identifying are by definition most likely to be religious and therefore not included in these statics, it is a known fact that many LGBT+ people leave their faith communities because of the way they are treated by them,” she continued.
Census data released earlier in the year found that those aged between 16 and 24 are more than twice as likely to identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community compared with the general population.
Gen Z were the most likely to identify as LGBTQ+ in England and Wales at a rate of 6.91% to 3.16%, respectively.
Of the over 70s who came of age while homosexuality was still a criminal offence, only 0.37% identified as LGB+.
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