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However, these figures are likely to be underestimated, as 6.1% of women and 4.8% of men chose uninformative response options – “other”, “don’t know”, and “prefer not to say” - which suggests that many of them may not be heterosexual.Įstimates of non-heterosexuality from the 2014 General Social Survey for the Australian population aged 18 years and older are slightly lower, at 2.5% for women and 2.4% for men.
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A greater share of women (1 in 25, or 3.9%) than men (1 in 33, or 2.9%) identified as gay/lesbian or bisexual. The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, for example, asked a sexual-identity question of approximately 16,000 men and women aged 15 years or older in 2016. Some surveys ask sexual-orientation questions of both men and women, which allows comparisons by gender. While 52.9% of the young women reported some non-heterosexuality on at least one dimension (identity, attraction or behaviour), only 23.4% did on all three dimensions. Interestingly, the degree of overlap between measures is not as large as could be expected. But again, a more conservative measure - feeling as intense a sexual attraction for women as for men - reduces this statistic to 1 in 10 (9.9%). Yet only 3.7% of them reported that their sexual experiences with women were at least as frequent as those with men.įinally, 43.5% of women in this sample acknowledged feeling some sexual attraction to other women.
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If sexual-minority status was defined using same-sex sexual behaviour (having had sex with other women at some point of their lives), about a third (32.9%) of the young women in the study would fall into this group. Excluding the “mostly heterosexual” category, the share of sexual-minority women falls to about one in eight (12.4%). However, the “ mostly heterosexual” category accounted for the bulk of this figure, and some might question whether these women should be counted as non-heterosexual. When sexual-minority status was defined on the basis of identity, 38% of these young women fell into a category other than “exclusively heterosexual” (that is, “mostly heterosexual”, “bisexual”, “mostly lesbian” or “lesbian”). Its youngest cohort, comprising roughly 17,000 women, was asked about sexual orientation at ages 22-28 years in 2017. Take, for example, the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, a long-running health survey tracking several cohorts of women over time. But those that do provide an interesting picture: the prevalence of non-heterosexuality varies drastically depending on the domain asked about. Self-identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or other smaller sexual-orientation groups (for example, asexual, pansexual, demisexual).įew Australian studies collect information on the three domains of sexual orientation from the same sample. These lead to different definitions of non-heterosexuality:įeeling some degree of sexual attraction towards people of the same sex and Dimensions of sexual orientation: what you askĪcademic scholarship usually distinguishes between three dimensions of sexual orientation: behaviour, attraction, and identity. Here, we collate and discuss estimates of the prevalence of sexual-minority status in contemporary Australia, leveraging recent information from several major social and health surveys. It also allows us to reflect critically on traditional narratives about sexual orientation and their applicability to current debates within Australian society. It can contribute to more inclusive social policies and services. Understanding the prevalence of non-heterosexuality - as well as how this varies according to who, what and when we ask - is an important endeavour. In Australia, there is comparatively less information – notwithstanding recent research efforts.