For the first time, an official census in England and Wales included questions about gender identity and sexual orientation.

More than 9 in 10 responded to these optional questions, which were asked to people aged 16 or more in March 2021. The official census is more reliable than opinion surveys conducted by private organisatinos, because it collects information from a much higher proportion of the population.

According to this latest census, a very large majority of 89.4% of citizens say they are heterosexual: attracted to the opposite sex.

1.5% of the population in England and Wales identified as gay or lesbian (or same-sex attracted), while 1.3% identified as bisexual (attracted to both men and women). Another 0.3% said their sexual orientation was either pansexual, asexual or queer. In total, thethe LGB+ community in England and Wales represents 3.1% of the population.

This statistical picture does not fit with estimates often heard by LGBTQI+ activism groups which say that between 5 and 10% of the population have a non-heterosexual orientation. According to the official census, such figures would only be found in Cardiff (with 5.3%) and certain districts of London.

Identifying as man or woman

Asking about gender identity (how people perceive their gender), a 0.5% of the census says their “gender identity was different from their sex registered at birth”. People identifying as transgender belong to this group. According to the BBC, London had higher proportions of people identifying as transgender men (0.16%) and trans women (0.16%) than the rest of England and Wales.

93.5% said “the gender I identify with is the same as my sex registered at birth”. 6% chose not to respond to the question.

In 2019, academics warned against “effectively transforming the longstanding sex question [in the official census] into a question about gender identity” because it could “undermine data reliability on a key demographic variable and damage our ability to capture and remedy sex-based discrimination and inequality”.

As in previous occasions, the 2021 census also asked about faith and beliefs, showing that, for the first time, less than half of the population identified as Christian. Read more about religion in the latest UK census in this article.