More than 900,000 Australians are estimated to identify as LGBTI+ according to new “experimental” data released by the Bureau of Statistics that also shows more younger people identify with the label than those from older generations.
The estimates released on Thursday are based on survey data from nearly 45,000 people who responded to one of four recent Bureau of Statistics health surveys.
The results mean one in twenty of the country’s population who is aged 16 years and over is estimated to be LGBTI+.
Compared to those who report being heterosexual, LGB+ Australians (lesbians, gays, bisexuals or people who use a different term to describe their sexual orientation) were found to more likely live in Victoria and less likely to live in Western Australia. These differences remain after adjusting for age.
An estimated 31.6% of Australia’s LGB+ population resides in Victoria, followed by 29.6% in New South Wales and 18.1% in Queensland, the data shows. Western Australia accounts for 8.4%, South Australia 6.4%, Tasmania 2.6%, the Australian Capital Territory 2.4%, and the Northern Territory 0.7%.
The LGBTI+ population also 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.
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 (The ABS notes that in its data trans people and people born with variations of sex characteristics [cis and trans] are included in the LGBTI+ acronym, including those who are heterosexual.)
- 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.
LGB+ men are more likely to live in major cities than heterosexual 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 women (78.3% compared to 73.1%). However, after adjusting for age, LGB+ women and heterosexual women are equally as likely to live in each remoteness area.
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.
More than three in ten LGB+ men (34.3%) and LGB+ women (38.5%) are married or in a de facto relationship.
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.
The Australian estimates are similar to figures calculated from New Zealand’s 2023 Census data. The New Zealand 2023 Census found 4.2% of the total population aged 15 years and over are LGBTIQ+ (compared to the estimated 4.5% of the Australian population aged 16 years and over).
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%).
“The new data shows that about 4.5 per cent of all Australians 16 years and older are LGBTI+; that’s over 900,000 people,” Bureau of Statistics head of health statistics Linda Fardell said in a statement.
“Younger Australians are more likely to be LGBTI+. Nearly 10 per cent of Australians aged 16 to 24 years are LGBTI+.”
Fardell said about 0.3 per cent of Australians (about 63,300 people) report they know they were born with variations of sex characteristics.
The 2026 Australian Census will include questions on gender and sexual orientation for people aged 16 years and over. This will provide more detailed data by geography and population characteristics for LGB+ and trans and gender diverse populations in Australia.
Advocacy group Equality Australia said the data was the first time the Bureau of Statistics has had a sufficient sample size to extract such findings.
“Up until now 4.5 per cent of Australians, or almost one million people, have been hidden from our national data sets,” Equality Australia chief executive Anna Brown said.
“Our communities deserve to be counted and to feel seen. It’s significant when advocating for our rights, dignity and well-being that decision makers know just how many of us there are and where we live.
“We now know that that LGBTIQ+ people live in every part of Australia, in regional, rural, metro and remote areas, and this means local councils, service providers and government agencies will be able to better serve the needs of our communities.
“As we suspected from previous surveys and estimates, LGBTIQ+ Australians are a significant demographic dispersed across the country.
“These estimates underscore the need for a more complete and accurate picture of Australia in the 2026 Census.”
Trans advocate Teddy Cook, who peer reviewed the Bureau of Statistics survey, said the data confirmed “something we’ve always known, that Australia is home to a significant population of trans adults living across metro and regional areas of every state and territory”.
“People of trans experience, including trans women, non-binary people and trans men are your neighbours, colleagues and family members. We are part of your community and we thrive when we belong,” Cook said.
“Finally, LGBTIQ+ adults can start to feel the dignity of being known and the next step is the 2026 Census.
“These data tell us that younger people today feel safer to disclose their true selves, and this must be celebrated. We can truly see for the first time the impact AIDS has had on LGBTIQ+ communities, particularly gay men.”
Proportion of people 16 years and over who are LGBTI+ by age, 2022
| LGBTI+ people (%) | 95% confidence interval (%) (low) | 95% confidence interval (%) (high) | 95% confidence interval (%) (high) |
| 16–24 | 9.5 | 8.5 | 10.5 |
| 25–34 | 7.5 | 6.7 | 8.3 |
| 35–44 | 3.9 | 3.3 | 4.5 |
| 45–54 | 2.9 | 2.4 | 3.4 |
| 55–64 | 2.3 | 1.8 | 2.8 |
| 65–74 | 1.9 | 1.5 | 2.3 |
| 75 years and over | 1.4 | 1.0 | 1.8 |
- Error bars illustrate the range within which we are 95% confident that the true value lies.
- 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.
Gay Sydney News editor