Global Sexual Orientation Statistics: A Kinsey Scale Analysis of 39 Countries

Introduction: Rediscovering the Kinsey Continuum

Alfred C. Kinsey and colleagues at Indiana University developed a seven-point continuum (0 through 6) to describe gradations from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual response and experience. The scale challenged rigid binary classification; contemporary surveys distinguish attraction, identity, and behavior rather than treating them as interchangeable.¹ ²

What made Kinsey's contribution so revolutionary was deceptively simple: he rejected the binary. In a civilization that had long insisted human beings were either attracted to the opposite sex or the same sex — and nothing in between — Kinsey's research documented that sexual orientation existed on a fluid, measurable spectrum. His original interviews with thousands of Americans revealed that substantial numbers of people experienced some degree of attraction to both sexes, even when they identified themselves in categorical terms.

This synthesis retains 39 country profiles from the earlier cross-national evidence and adds the 2026 atlas’s direct-scale polling and methodological audit. The new atlas supplies published national nonzero-scale estimates for the United States and Britain, not for every profile. “Global” describes the scope of this synthesis, not a worldwide prevalence estimate.

About the Kinsey Scale

The Kinsey Scale, developed by Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey and colleagues at Indiana University in the 1940s and 1950s, rates human sexual orientation on a seven-point continuum:¹

Modern sexuality research has moved beyond the single Kinsey axis to incorporate multidimensional measures including the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid, which addresses attraction, behavior, fantasy, emotional preference, social preference, self-identification, and lifestyle across past, present, and ideal timeframes. However, the Kinsey Scale remains one of the most widely recognized and frequently cited frameworks for understanding that human sexual orientation exists on a continuum rather than as a rigid binary.

Section 1: Exact Kinsey-scale evidence

The direct self-placement poll results appear once in the United States and Britain / United Kingdom profiles, alongside separately labeled attraction and identity evidence. The historical and selected-sample studies below answer different questions and must not be pooled into national prevalence.

The Original Kinsey Findings (1948–1953)

The historical record begins with Kinsey himself. His team conducted detailed sexual history interviews with approximately 5,300 men and 5,940 women — large samples for their era, though not probability-representative of the national population.¹ ²

Among the most frequently cited original findings:

• 11.6% of white men ages 20–35 received a Kinsey rating of 3 (equally heterosexual and homosexual) for at least some period of their lives
• Among women ages 20–35, approximately 7% of single women and 4% of previously married women were rated at Kinsey 3
• 2–6% of women were reported at rating 5 (predominantly homosexual)
• 1–3% of unmarried women were rated at Kinsey 6 (exclusively homosexual)

These figures demonstrated substantial intermediate and same-sex-oriented experience in mid-20th-century America, though they came from opportunistic rather than probability samples and should not be directly projected as modern population prevalence.

Exact-scale studies: what their samples can establish

London general practice, 2003 (N = 1,512): the recoded 1–7 experience scale reported entirely heterosexual experience for 89.4% of women and 85.9% of men; bisexual experience to some degree for 8.1% and 5.3%; and predominantly homosexual experience for 2.5% and 8.8%. Women’s intermediate desire category was 13.6%, wider than their experience category. This is a clinic-attender sample, not UK population prevalence.⁷

Spain, 2023 (N = 2,293 cisgender adults): deliberately stratified groups comprised 800 heterosexual participants (scores 1–2), 694 bisexual participants (3–5), and 799 gay/lesbian participants (6–7). The bisexual group was younger on average. This design tests psychometric properties, not prevalence.⁸

Laboratory aggregation, 2020: 606 men comprised 178 at K0, 102 at K1, 46 at K2, 34 at K3, 37 at K4, 70 at K5, and 139 at K6. Bisexual and homosexual men were deliberately oversampled. The study tests physiological patterns rather than population proportions.⁹

Additional continuum studies: Epstein et al. (2012) studied 17,785 respondents across 48 countries using an 18-item continuous ESOI measure. Epstein et al. (2023) included 1,150,938 respondents from 215 countries/territories using a 0–18 mean-and-range measure. Neither is an exact Kinsey 0–6 population survey; both have substantial Internet self-selection limitations. The larger study was English-language and concentrated in the US, UK, and Canada, so its geographic reach cannot fill missing national nonzero-scale estimates.⁵ ⁶

Section 2: 🌍 Global Overview — What the World Data Reveals

The Challenge of a Single Global Number

“What percentage of the world is not straight?” cannot be answered by simply pooling surveys that ask different questions of different samples.

The two principal cross-national datasets in this atlas — the 2005 BBC Internet Survey (191,088 respondents across 28 nations) and the 2021 Ipsos LGBT+ Pride Survey (19,069 respondents across 27 countries) — both warned against computing a naïve pooled world percentage. As the original evidence synthesis noted: "Such a number would be falsely precise."³ ⁴

Why? Because measured distributions depended materially on: - Whether a survey asked about attraction, behavior, identity, or interviewer-rated history - The age and cohort composition of the sample - Privacy and disclosure conditions (including legal risk in some countries) - Sample design (probability vs. online panel vs. self-selected) - Cultural familiarity with Western sexual-orientation categories

The following figures describe the surveyed country sets, not population-weighted world prevalence. The arithmetic mean of the two 2015 direct-scale national points in the country profiles is 21.5%, but even that two-jurisdiction comparison is not a pooled prevalence estimate: sample counts, weights, and a common target population would be required. A later US poll adds a time point, not another country. The BBC seven-point same-sex attraction item, subsequently grouped into three bands, does not measure country-level Kinsey score 0 or its complement.

The Global Numbers: What We Can Defensibly State

Ipsos 2021: 27-Country Average

Across all 27 countries surveyed by Ipsos, the unweighted country-average distribution was:³

Calculated broad nonexclusive-attraction composite: approximately 24% (unweighted surveyed-country average)

This is an unweighted average across the surveyed online panels, not a finding that one in four people worldwide has a particular orientation.

The narrower "significant same-sex attraction" composite (equal + mostly same + only same) averaged approximately 11% across countries — essentially identical for men and women at the global level, though the internal category mix differed by sex.

BBC 2005: 28-Nation Attraction Data

The BBC dataset, while older and self-selected, produced strikingly similar global patterns:⁴

The BBC and Ipsos instruments, country sets, years, and recruitment methods differ. Apparent agreement between aggregate numbers cannot justify a world prevalence estimate or a 20–30% global range.

The attraction–identity gap: a recurring pattern

One of the most robust findings across the global evidence was the systematic gap between attraction and identity. In virtually every country studied, the percentage of people reporting some same-sex attraction exceeded the percentage who identified as bisexual, gay, or lesbian.⁴

This gap was not evidence of deception. Attraction and identity measured fundamentally different constructs — one experiential, the other social and psychological. A person could experience fleeting or moderate same-sex attraction while identifying as heterosexual, and this was neither contradictory nor dishonest. The global data simply revealed that categorical identity labels compressed a far richer continuum of human experience.

The gap was consistently larger among women than men across nations, consistent with the scientific literature on multidimensionality and what some researchers termed greater female "erotic plasticity."¹⁰ ¹¹

Country Variation: From 12% to 33%

The range across individual countries was substantial:

• Lowest reported non-exclusive heterosexuality (Ipsos): Russia and Hungary at approximately 12%
• Highest reported non-exclusive heterosexuality (BBC): Austria at approximately 33%
• Highest in Ipsos: China, France, India, and Mexico at approximately 30%

Nonresponse must be assessed country by country rather than presumed to track low disclosed attraction. It can reflect uncertainty, privacy concerns, stigma, or unfamiliar categories; these datasets cannot identify a single cause or the orientation of nonrespondents.

The Generational Shift

The age gradient was one of the strongest and most consistent patterns across all countries:³

Ipsos 2023 reported LGBT+ identification of 18% among Gen Z versus 4% among Baby Boomers across 30 countries. The 2024 report again found higher identification among Gen Z. These are identity findings, not an updated attraction distribution, and the two years should not be assigned the same numerical estimate.¹²

Sex and Gender Patterns

In Ipsos, the narrower same/equal-attraction composite was approximately 11% for both men and women; this is not the broader nonexclusive-attraction measure. Its internal composition differed:³ ⁴

• Men were somewhat more likely to report only same-sex attraction
• Women were somewhat more likely to report equal attraction to both sexes and were less likely to report only opposite-sex attraction

Social position and gender diversity

The Ipsos same/equal-attraction composite was approximately 11% at low, medium, and high education levels; 9% among married respondents versus 13% among unmarried respondents. These are associations, not effects of education or marriage: age, cohort, selection, legal context, and disclosure can confound them.³

Transgender, non-binary/non-conforming/gender-fluid, and other gender-diverse respondents had heterogeneous orientation patterns. Historical binary categories and a single opposite-sex/same-sex axis do not capture that diversity adequately.

Cohort differences can arise from differences in attraction, disclosure, and interpretation. Cross-sectional generational comparisons cannot establish within-person fluidity or separate age, period, and cohort effects.

Section 3: 🗺️ Country-by-Country Analysis

Each of the 39 countries appears once below, alphabetically. Earlier attraction tables remain where the new atlas provides no replacement. The US and Britain / UK profiles now distinguish direct-scale polling, attraction bands, and identity data. For the other profiles, the cited evidence does not supply national score 1–6 estimates; their attraction composites cannot substitute for them. Cross-survey differences must not be read as rises or falls in national prevalence.

Data sources key: - Ipsos 2021: Five-category attraction continuum from the Ipsos LGBT+ Pride 2021 Global Survey³ - BBC 2005: Three-band same-sex attraction measure from the BBC Internet Survey, reanalyzed by Rahman et al.⁴

Argentina

Reported attraction composite: ~28% (Ipsos 2021)

Historical records from early 21st-century Argentina reveal a population whose sexual attraction spectrum was more diverse than the predominantly Catholic cultural framework of the era might have suggested. Argentina had legalized same-sex marriage in 2010, making it the first country in Latin America to do so.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

The 18% reporting "mostly opposite-sex" attraction was among the higher rates in the Ipsos dataset, indicating a substantial population that was predominantly heterosexual but acknowledged some same-sex interest. The significant same-sex attraction composite (equal + mostly same + only same) was approximately 10%.

Australia

Reported attraction composite: ~24% (Ipsos) / ~26% (BBC)

Australia consistently appeared among the countries with higher measured continuum diversity in early 21st-century surveys. The nation legalized same-sex marriage in 2017 following a national postal survey in which 61.6% voted in favor.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 8,003):

Australia — Identity: 90% heterosexual, 6% bisexual, 4% gay/lesbian. The attraction-identity gap was approximately 16 percentage points.

Australia’s 9% only-same-sex attraction in Ipsos was tied with Belgium and the United Kingdom for the highest reported value in that category.

Austria

Reported attraction composite: ~33% (BBC 2005)

Austria's BBC data (N = 398) produced one of the highest non-exclusive heterosexuality measurements in the entire 28-nation dataset — though the relatively small sample size warrants caution.

BBC 2005 Data:

Austria — Identity: 88% heterosexual, 9% bisexual, 3% gay/lesbian. The attraction-identity gap was approximately 21 percentage points — one of the largest measured.

The 26% moderate same-sex attraction figure was the highest of any country in the BBC dataset. Austria was not included in the Ipsos 2021 survey, so no modern comparison is available.

Belgium

Reported attraction composite: ~28% (Ipsos) / ~21% (BBC)

Belgium, which had legalized same-sex marriage in 2003, was among the countries recording the highest continuum diversity in the Ipsos survey.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 1,322):

Belgium — Identity: 91% heterosexual, 6% bisexual, 4% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 11 percentage points.

The significant same-sex attraction composite was approximately 16% in Ipsos — tied with Australia, Brazil, and India for the highest in that survey.

Brazil

Reported attraction composite: ~28% (Ipsos 2021)

Brazil's data from the early 21st century reflected a society of fascinating contradictions — one of the world's most socially vibrant LGBTQ+ cultures coexisting alongside significant religious conservatism. Same-sex marriage was legalized nationally in 2013.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

The 7% equal attraction rate was the second-highest in the Ipsos dataset (after India's 9%), suggesting a notably strong bisexual-spectrum presence. The significant same-sex attraction composite was approximately 16%.

Bulgaria

Reported attraction composite: ~26% (BBC 2005)

Bulgaria's BBC data (N = 381) revealed a pattern common across Eastern European nations — a substantial attraction-identity gap in a social environment that was less accepting of open LGBTQ+ expression.

BBC 2005 Data:

Bulgaria — Identity: 93% heterosexual, 6% bisexual, 2% gay/lesbian. The attraction-identity gap was approximately 18 percentage points.

That gap — the difference between what people felt and what they called themselves — was among the largest measured, suggesting that categorical identity labels captured only a fraction of the experienced spectrum.

Canada

Reported attraction composite: ~25% (Ipsos) / ~26% (BBC)

Canada, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2005, produced remarkably consistent results across the two surveys — the data from 2005 and 2021 aligned within approximately one percentage point on broad non-exclusive attraction constructs.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 11,673):

Canada — Identity: 90% heterosexual, 6% bisexual, 4% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 16 percentage points.

Canada’s BBC sample was the third-largest national subsample, after the United Kingdom and United States. A larger self-selected sample does not eliminate selection bias. Its Ipsos same/equal-attraction composite was approximately 14%.

Chile

Reported attraction composite: ~24% (Ipsos 2021)

Chile's data placed it in the middle of the Latin American range, with same-sex marriage legalized in 2022.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

The significant same-sex attraction composite was approximately 12%.

China

Reported attraction composite: ~30% (Ipsos 2021)

China's Ipsos data was striking — and complicated. The headline figure of approximately 30% was among the highest in the entire survey, driven substantially by a large 19% reporting "mostly opposite-sex attraction" and an unusually high 6% reporting equal attraction.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

The Ipsos methodology note cautioned that emerging-market online samples, including China's, tended to be more urban, educated, and affluent than the general population — factors that could influence both experienced attraction and willingness to disclose. The significant same-sex attraction composite was approximately 11%.

Colombia

Reported attraction composite: ~26% (Ipsos 2021)

Colombia presented a distinctive pattern — a relatively lower "significant same-sex attraction" composite alongside a high "mostly opposite-sex" category.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

The 19% mostly-opposite figure was notably high, while the significant same-sex composite (equal + mostly same + only same) was only approximately 7% — one of the lowest in the Ipsos dataset. Cross-national disclosure conditions were cited as a credible alternative explanation to a purely biological account of this lower figure.

Denmark

Reported attraction composite: ~24% (BBC 2005)

Denmark, historically one of the world's most progressive nations on LGBTQ+ rights (it introduced registered partnerships in 1989), appeared only in the BBC dataset.

BBC 2005 Data (N = 779):

Denmark — Identity: 93% heterosexual, 4% bisexual, 3% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 17 percentage points.

Finland

Reported attraction composite: ~29% (BBC 2005)

Finland's BBC data (N = 1,628) placed it among the higher end of measured non-exclusive heterosexuality.

BBC 2005 Data:

Finland — Identity: 86% heterosexual, 11% bisexual, 3% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 15 percentage points.

Finland's 11% bisexual identification was among the highest in the BBC dataset, and its 22% moderate same-sex attraction was also notable.

France

Reported attraction composite: ~30% (Ipsos) / ~26% (BBC)

France, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2013, produced one of the highest non-exclusive heterosexuality measures in the Ipsos survey — driven by a combination of high "mostly opposite-sex" attraction (17%) and strong same-sex attraction figures.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 965):

France — Identity: 87% heterosexual, 7% bisexual, 6% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 13 percentage points.

France’s 8% only-same-sex attraction tied with the Netherlands, below the 9% reported in Australia, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. Its same/equal-attraction composite was approximately 13%.

Germany

Reported attraction composite: ~24% (Ipsos) / ~29% (BBC)

Germany's data was notable for having the highest "don't know / prefer not to say" rate among Western European nations at 11%, complicating direct prevalence inference.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 1,484):

Germany — Identity: 87% heterosexual, 8% bisexual, 5% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 16 percentage points.

The significant same-sex composite was approximately 11% in Ipsos. The substantial gap between the BBC and Ipsos figures (~5 percentage points on broad constructs) illustrates why cross-survey time-trend claims required great caution.

Greece

Reported attraction composite: ~16% (BBC 2005)

Greece’s BBC data (N = 843) had a lower moderate-plus-predominant share than most countries in that sample, but India was lower.

BBC 2005 Data:

Greece — Identity: 94% heterosexual, 4% bisexual, 3% gay/lesbian. Attraction–identity gap: approximately 9 percentage points; India’s was smaller.

Hungary

Reported attraction composite: ~12% (Ipsos 2021)

Hungary recorded the lowest non-exclusive heterosexuality measure (tied with Russia) in the entire Ipsos 27-country survey. This occurred in a political environment that had been increasingly restrictive toward LGBTQ+ rights.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

The researchers noted that the lower observed continuum share was "statistically conspicuous, yet cross-national disclosure conditions and category interpretation are credible alternative explanations." The significant same-sex composite was approximately 7%.

India

Reported attraction composite: ~30% (Ipsos) / ~11% (BBC)

India had one of the highest broad Ipsos composites and an elevated 14% nonresponse rate (5% “don’t know” + 9% “prefer not to say”), although Malaysia’s was higher. The 2018 Section 377 ruling occurred between the surveys, but these data cannot isolate its effect.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 3,193):

India — Identity: 93% heterosexual, 6% bisexual, 1% gay/lesbian. Attraction–identity gap: approximately 4 percentage points — the smallest in Appendix C.

The 19-percentage-point difference between the broad Ipsos and BBC measures is the largest among countries with both sources, but it is not a controlled time trend. Instruments, samples, disclosure, and social context differ. India’s 9% equal attraction is the highest in Appendix B.

Ireland

Reported attraction composite: ~19% (BBC 2005)

Ireland's BBC data (N = 488), collected before the nation's historic 2015 marriage equality referendum (which passed with 62%), showed substantial attraction diversity.

BBC 2005 Data:

Ireland — Identity: 91% heterosexual, 5% bisexual, 3% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 11 percentage points.

Italy

Reported attraction composite: ~23% (Ipsos) / ~25% (BBC)

Italy, which introduced civil unions (but not marriage) for same-sex couples in 2016, showed moderate continuum diversity.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 443):

Italy — Identity: 87% heterosexual, 8% bisexual, 5% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 12 percentage points.

The significant same-sex composite was approximately 9% in Ipsos.

Japan

Reported attraction composite: ~17% (Ipsos) / ~27% (BBC)

Japan presented one of the starkest between-survey contrasts in the global data — a 10 percentage-point difference between the Ipsos and BBC measures. The country also had one of the highest nonresponse rates at 13% in Ipsos (9% "don't know" + 4% "prefer not to say").

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 474):

Japan — Identity: 92% heterosexual, 5% bisexual, 4% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 18 percentage points.

The researchers noted that the high nonresponse "materially widens uncertainty: low disclosed minority attraction cannot safely be equated with low underlying prevalence." The significant same-sex composite was approximately 6% in Ipsos — one of the lowest measured.

Malaysia

Reported attraction composite: ~19% (Ipsos) / ~28% (BBC)

Malaysia recorded the highest Ipsos nonresponse rate at 25%: 10% “don’t know” and 15% “prefer not to say” (Appendix B). The earlier article had these two components reversed.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 775):

Malaysia — Identity: 90% heterosexual, 6% bisexual, 4% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 18 percentage points.

Malaysia’s nonresponse widens uncertainty; the data do not establish the orientation of nonrespondents or how much higher or lower population prevalence might be. The same/equal-attraction composite was approximately 12%.

Mexico

Reported attraction composite: ~30% (Ipsos 2021)

Mexico's Ipsos figure placed it among the highest in the dataset, driven by a substantial 18% reporting "mostly opposite-sex attraction".

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

The significant same-sex composite was approximately 12%.

Netherlands

Reported attraction composite: ~24% (Ipsos) / ~29% (BBC)

The Netherlands, the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage (2001), produced some of the most interesting data in both surveys.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 2,108):

Netherlands — Identity: 85% heterosexual, 7% bisexual, 8% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 14 percentage points.

The Dutch BBC data was notable for having the highest exclusively homosexual identification at 8% — double or triple the rate in many other nations. The significant same-sex composite was approximately 13% in Ipsos.

New Zealand

Reported attraction composite: ~26% (BBC 2005)

New Zealand's BBC data (N = 1,990) showed a pattern similar to its neighbor Australia.

BBC 2005 Data:

New Zealand — Identity: 90% heterosexual, 6% bisexual, 4% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 16 percentage points.

Norway

Reported attraction composite: ~20% (BBC 2005)

BBC 2005 Data (N = 565):

Norway — Identity: 92% heterosexual, 6% bisexual, 2% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 12 percentage points.

Peru

Reported attraction composite: ~24% (Ipsos 2021)

Peru's data showed a pattern similar to Colombia — a relatively low significant same-sex composite alongside a high "mostly opposite-sex" category.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

Peru’s same/equal-attraction composite was approximately 5%, above Russia’s 4%; they were not tied. Disclosure conditions and category interpretation are possible influences, not demonstrated causes.

Philippines

Reported attraction composite: ~31% (BBC 2005)

The Philippines’ BBC moderate-plus-predominant attraction share was the second-highest in Appendix C, below Austria.

BBC 2005 Data:

Philippines — Identity: 86% heterosexual, 7% bisexual, 7% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 17 percentage points.

The 11% predominant same-sex attraction was the highest for any country in the BBC dataset. Filipino culture of the era had a complex relationship with gender and sexuality, with a long-standing tradition of the bakla and other indigenous gender-variant identities.

Poland

Reported attraction composite: ~18% (Ipsos) / ~30% (BBC)

Poland showed one of the largest between-survey discrepancies at 12 percentage points, occurring in a political environment that had become increasingly hostile to LGBTQ+ rights during the 2020s.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 441):

Poland — Identity: 91% heterosexual, 6% bisexual, 3% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 21 percentage points — tied with Austria for the largest in the BBC dataset.

The BBC moderate-plus-predominant band and the Ipsos same/equal-attraction composite are different measures. Their difference must not be described as a decline in the same statistic.

Romania

Reported attraction composite: ~19% (BBC 2005)

BBC 2005 Data (N = 359):

Romania — Identity: 94% heterosexual, 4% bisexual, 3% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 12 percentage points.

Russia

Reported attraction composite: ~12% (Ipsos 2021)

Russia recorded the lowest non-exclusive heterosexuality measure (tied with Hungary) in the Ipsos survey. This occurred under the "gay propaganda" law enacted in 2013, which criminalized positive portrayals of non-heterosexual relationships to minors and was later expanded.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

The significant same-sex composite was approximately 4% — the lowest in the entire dataset. However, as with all countries showing low figures, the researchers emphasized that "cross-national disclosure conditions and category interpretation are credible alternative explanations to a purely population-biological account."

Singapore

Reported attraction composite: ~28% (BBC 2005)

Singapore's BBC data (N = 1,748) was collected while Section 377A (criminalizing male homosexual acts) was still in effect. The law was repealed in 2022.

BBC 2005 Data:

Singapore — Identity: 90% heterosexual, 6% bisexual, 4% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 18 percentage points.

The 22% moderate same-sex attraction was among the highest in the dataset, notable given the legal climate.

South Africa

Reported attraction composite: ~22% (Ipsos 2021)

South Africa, which legalized same-sex marriage in its 2006 Civil Union Act (the first African country to do so), showed moderate continuum diversity.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

The significant same-sex composite was approximately 11%.

South Korea

Reported attraction composite: ~28% (Ipsos 2021)

South Korea’s equal-attraction share was among the highest, not the highest: India’s was larger. Its mostly-opposite share was also high, while its only-same-sex share was among the lowest.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

The 19% mostly-opposite and 7% equal-attraction rates describe a sizeable intermediate band in this panel; the 1% only-same-sex category tied with Russia. The same/equal-attraction composite was approximately 9%. These data alone cannot attribute that pattern to cultural pressure.

Spain

Reported attraction composite: ~28% (Ipsos) / ~27% (BBC)

Spain, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2005, showed remarkable consistency between the two surveys — within approximately one percentage point on broad non-exclusive attraction constructs.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 817):

Spain — Identity: 91% heterosexual, 4% bisexual, 6% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 17 percentage points.

The significant same-sex composite was approximately 10% in Ipsos.

Sweden

Reported attraction composite: ~25% (Ipsos) / ~21% (BBC)

Sweden, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2009, showed moderate continuum diversity consistent with its Nordic neighbors.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 1,232):

Sweden — Identity: 92% heterosexual, 6% bisexual, 2% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 13 percentage points.

The significant same-sex composite was approximately 12% in Ipsos.

Switzerland

Reported attraction composite: ~20% (BBC 2005)

BBC 2005 Data (N = 557):

Switzerland — Identity: 91% heterosexual, 6% bisexual, 3% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 11 percentage points.

Turkey

Reported attraction composite: ~18% (Ipsos) / ~20% (BBC)

Turkey's data, collected in a social environment that was becoming increasingly restrictive toward public LGBTQ+ expression, showed a moderately lower continuum share.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 1,294):

Turkey — Identity: 96% heterosexual, 3% bisexual, 1% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 16 percentage points.

Turkey's 96% heterosexual identification was the highest in the entire BBC dataset, while its attraction data told a substantially different story. The significant same-sex composite was approximately 7% in Ipsos.

United Kingdom

Britain: direct self-placement poll, 2015

These are British YouGov responses, not UK-wide ONS identity estimates.^[14]

The reported scale groups total 95%, leaving approximately 5% outside them, including nonresponse or rounding. The nonzero sums retain the full published base rather than dividing by only the stated scale groups.

United Kingdom: identity in 2024, a separate measure

ONS reports lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) identity, not Kinsey scores. Its UK geography also differs from the British poll. The contrast between the scale and identity results reflects different constructs, dates, samples, and geography; it cannot quantify concealment.^[19]

The corresponding UK-wide LGB identity share was 2.7% in 2019; that identity-series comparison is not a repeat of the 2015 scale question. Men’s and women’s score 1–6 percentages are unavailable from the cited British published toplines.

Earlier cross-national attraction evidence

Reported attraction composite: ~23% (Ipsos) / ~21% (BBC)

The United Kingdom hosted the largest national BBC subsample, with 95,793 respondents; its size does not make a self-selected sample nationally representative. Same-sex marriage was legalized in England and Wales and Scotland in 2014, and Northern Ireland in 2020.

Ipsos 2021 Attraction Data:

BBC 2005 Data (N = 95,793):

United Kingdom — Identity: 91% heterosexual, 5% bisexual, 4% gay/lesbian. Attraction-identity gap: approximately 12 percentage points.

The UK's 9% exclusively same-sex attracted (Ipsos) tied with Australia and Belgium for the highest in the survey. The significant same-sex composite was approximately 15% in Ipsos.

United States

Direct self-placement polling: 2015, 2018, and 2020

These published YouGov toplines describe nonzero self-placement, not lifetime prevalence. The apparent rise is descriptive: panel composition, mode, wording, age structure, and disclosure can differ. No harmonized respondent records or design-based variance were available for a trend test.^[13][15][16]

Age and cohort contrasts

Age bands and generations are different partitions across separate surveys. Do not infer scores 1–6 simply by subtracting score 0 from 100% without accounting for other responses.

Sex-specific limits: the 2018 poll reported same-sex experience for 18% of men and 18% of women. Experience is not the score 1–6 distribution: the men’s and women’s nonzero-scale estimates remain unavailable from these toplines. Adding sex-specific percentages is not a combined prevalence; that requires subgroup denominators and weights.^[15]

Modern Survey Evidence: Ipsos 2021

The 2021 Ipsos panel provides a U.S. attraction snapshot on a coarsened Kinsey-compatible continuum, not exact seven-score prevalence.³

Calculated broad Ipsos nonexclusive-attraction share: approximately 19% of U.S. survey respondents. This is not a probability-representative estimate of all American adults.

The BBC Internet Survey: A Deeper American Picture (2005)

The BBC Internet survey, reanalyzed by Rahman and colleagues across 28 nations, included an enormous American subsample of 50,928 respondents — one of the largest sexual-orientation samples ever collected in the United States.⁴

Results using a seven-point same-sex attraction scale:

Calculated moderate + predominant same-sex attraction: approximately 26% — meaning more than one in four Americans in this sample reported moderate or predominant same-sex attraction.

On the identity side of the same survey: - 88% identified as heterosexual/straight - 7% identified as bisexual - 5% identified as gay or lesbian

The U.S. attraction–identity gap is approximately 14 percentage points, calculated from the rounded categories above. Percentage points are not relative percent change. Different constructs need not match, and the gap does not demonstrate dishonesty.

📚 Bibliography & Citations

Primary Sources

1. Kinsey Institute, Indiana University. "The Kinsey Scale." Accessed August 24, 2026. https://www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/publications/kinsey-scale.html.

2. Kinsey, Alfred C., Wardell B. Pomeroy, and Clyde E. Martin. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1948. Kinsey, Alfred C., et al. Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1953.

3. Ipsos. LGBT+ Pride 2021 Global Survey. June 2021. Especially pp. 4, 7–9. https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2021-06/lgbt-pride-2021-global-survey-ipsos.pdf.

4. Rahman, Qazi, Yin Xu, Richard A. Lippa, and Paul L. Vasey. "Prevalence of Sexual Orientation Across 28 Nations and Its Association with Gender Equality, Economic Development, and Individualism." Archives of Sexual Behavior 49 (2020): 595–606. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01590-0.

Additional Peer-Reviewed Sources

5. Epstein, Robert, Paul McKinney, Shannon Fox, and Carlos Garcia. "Support for a Fluid-Continuum Model of Sexual Orientation: A Large-Scale Internet Study." Journal of Homosexuality 59, no. 10 (2012): 1356–1381. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2012.724634.

6. Epstein, Robert, Hongyu Wang, and Vanessa R. Zankich. "Is Everyone a Mix of Straight and Gay? A Social Pressure Theory of Sexual Orientation, with Supporting Data from a Large Global Sample." Frontiers in Psychology 14 (2023): 1187377. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1187377.

7. Nazareth, Irwin, et al. "Problems with Sexual Function in People Attending London General Practitioners: Cross Sectional Study." BMJ 327 (2003): 423.

8. Sierra, Juan Carlos, et al. "Measurement Invariance across Sexual Orientation for Measures of Sexual Attitudes." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 20, no. 3 (2023): 1820. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20031820.

9. Jabbour, Jeremy, et al. "Robust Evidence for Bisexual Orientation among Men." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 31 (2020): 18369–18377. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2003631117.

10. Bailey, J. Michael, Paul L. Vasey, Lisa M. Diamond, S. Marc Breedlove, Eric Vilain, and Marc Epprecht. "Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science." Psychological Science in the Public Interest 17, no. 2 (2016): 45–101. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100616637616.

11. Diamond, Lisa M. "Female Bisexuality from Adolescence to Adulthood: Results from a 10-Year Longitudinal Study." Developmental Psychology 44, no. 1 (2008): 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.44.1.5.

12. Ipsos. "Pride Month 2023: 9% of Adults Identify as LGBT+." June 1, 2023. Ipsos. LGBT+ Pride 2024. May 2024. "Gen Zers Most Likely to Identify as LGBT+." May 27, 2024.

Additional sources from the 2026 evidence atlas

13. YouGov. “A Third of Young Americans Say They Aren’t 100% Heterosexual.” August 20, 2015. Source publication.

14. YouGov. “1 in 2 Young People Say They Are Not 100% Heterosexual.” August 2015. Source publication.

15. YouGov. “More Young Americans Now Identify as Bisexual.” 2018. Source publication.

16. YouGov. “Americans Are Split on Whether Sexuality Is a Spectrum.” June 1, 2020. Source publication.

17. Hsieh et al. “Estimating the Proportion of Non-Heterosexuals in Taiwan.” 2021. Source publication.

18. Alexander and Fisher. Study of the bogus pipeline and sex differences in self-report. 2003. Source publication.

19. Office for National Statistics. “Sexual Orientation, UK: 2024.” December 9, 2025. Source publication.

20. Pornhub Insights. “Gay Pride Insights 2025.” Source publication.

Source Data Notes

• The Ipsos 2021 survey covered 27 countries with approximately 19,069 respondents total, using online panels calibrated to national demographics (though emerging-market samples skewed urban/educated/affluent).
• The BBC 2005 survey encompassed 191,088 respondents across 28 nations but was self-selected and English-language, introducing potential biases.
• The original Kinsey studies (1948/1953) involved approximately 11,240 participants but used non-probability sampling.
• All country-level percentages reflect survey-reported figures and may be influenced by nonresponse, social desirability, legal environment, translation, and category familiarity.

Sources: Michael Aaron Loftus, “Human sexuality: evidence atlas,” Research synthesis 2026, evidence cutoff September 27, 2026, supplies the direct-scale polling, ONS identity contrasts, and methodological additions. Unchanged Ipsos and BBC country tables remain from Appendices B and C of the earlier “Human Sexual Orientation on a Continuum” Year 3629 Edition (August 2026 evidence). Derived sums retain source denominators and rounding; Japan’s charting approximation remains explicitly distinguished. Previously listed source publications are not duplicated.

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