Demographics of sexual orientation
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Measurement difficulties
Measuring the prevalence of various sexual orientations (e.g. heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, and asexuality) in a large population can be a surprisingly difficult task.One reason is that survey data regarding stigmatized or deeply personal feelings or activities are often inaccurate. Participants often avoid answers which they feel society, the survey-takers, or they themselves dislike. This phenomenon affects survey data not only on sexuality, but also on minority religions, on personal views on controversial matters such as abortion, and on political polls. (Classic examples of this are not 'admitting' support in surveys in the 1990s for the British Conservative Party, or controversial parties like the British National Party, with such parties getting a higher vote in the privacy of a ballot box than reported in surveys.)
Complexities of definition
Another difficulty in designing, conducting, and reporting surveys of sexual orientation is the complexity of the phenomenon itself. There are at least three primary aspects of sexuality that contribute to defining heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, etc. These are:
- Sexual behavior - The gender of the people one has committed sex acts with.
- Sexual orientation, preference, or inclination - The gender of the people one has a spontaneous sexual attraction to.
- Sexual identity or self-identification - The demographic label one chooses to describe oneself to others when referring to one's sexual orientation.
There is also the question of distinguishing bisexuality from heterosexuality and homosexuality. Some researchers prefer to define a spectrum of behavior or attraction, allowing various shades of attraction to either gender. Others prefer to define two or three distinct classes of sexual behavior or orientation, and report where the population under study falls with regard to these boundaries. This aspect of study design still contributes to confusion and controversy over reported results.
This situation is complicated further by the fact that there are several different biological and psychosocial components to sex and gender, and a given person may not cleanly fit into a particular category. Some people even find the notion of distinct genders (and distinct sexual orientations based upon them) to be offensive. The complexities of gender are explained in the articles on gender and sex.
Incidence versus prevalence
Another significant distinction can be made between what medical statisticians call incidence and prevalence. For example, even if two studies agree on a common criterion for defining a sexual orientation, one study might regard this as applying to any person who has ever met this criterion, whereas another might only regard them as being so if they had done so during the year of the survey.General observations
Most people in most societies around the world have mostly experienced heterosexual attraction and engaged in predominantly heterosexual behavior.Some communities, such as modern gay villages, may have high concentrations of homosexual and bisexual people (by sexual attraction and behavior), such that people who experience only heterosexual attraction and behavior are a minority.
Some societies have stigmatized or even criminalized some or all forms of non-heterosexual behavior and attraction, but in others, bisexual attraction and behavior (or certain prescribed forms thereof) have been tolerated, considered normal for anyone, or (mostly in modern times) considered valid "alternatives."
Some societies have institutionalized ritual homosexual behavior, such that most members (or sometimes, most men) will have engaged in sex acts with both males and females (but not necessarily feel spontaneous sexual attraction to those with whom they engage in ritual sex acts).
Many forms of heterosexual behavior and attraction have also been stigmatized or criminalized by various societies, including pre-marital sex, polygamy, inter-racial marriage, divorce, non-submission of women, non-vaginal intercourse, the use of birth control, the use of mechanical devices for sexual stimulation, and various modes of dress and interaction (e.g. BDSM).
The term "heterosexual" and the conception of "heterosexuality" as an element of personal identity (with regard to attraction or self-affiliation) is largely a modern Western phenomenon (starting with the invention of the term "homosexual" in the mid-1800s.)
Sometimes heterosexual marriage is strongly encouraged by social pressures. For example, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints considers heterosexual marriage a requirement for entry to the highest level of heaven. Ritual heterosexual acts can also be promoted by social custom, or even enforced; many adolescents, for instance, feel compelled to participate in heterosexual behavior because of the attitudes of their peers.
Further complicating things, many societies, both historical and modern, have a third gender as is the case with the Hijra of India and the Berdache in many Native American cultures. In Western culture, a transgender person has a gender identity other than the one assigned to them at birth.
Historical patterns
This section is to be refactored along with History of sexuality.In past societies, especially those not under the sway of the Abrahamic religions, the attraction of males for each other, especially along the pederastic model, was largely taken for granted. In many states in ancient Greece the practice was mandated by law or custom and thus engaged in by the great majority of the male population, it being a cause of shame for a young man if he had not found a lover.
In ancient Rome free men routinely used their male slaves for sexual release, and, as Edward Gibbon mentions, of the first fifteen emperors, "Claudius was the only one whose taste in love was entirely correct."
In premodern Japan same-sex love between men was constructed variously as acolyte love in the monasteries, love bond between apprentice and experienced samurai, and celebrity cults around beautiful male kabuki actors (doubling as prostitutes off the stage), who were so popular with the adult male population that laws had to be passed restricting the dress of the youths so as to restore public order. The majority of the shoguns kept beautiful boys for their pleasure.
In Melanesia native tribes engaged in boy insemination rites in which the entire male population participated.
For a detailed description of sexuality in various societies, see History of sexuality.
The Kinsey Reports
Two of the most famous studies of the demographics of human sexual orientation were Dr. Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). These studies used a seven-point spectrum to define sexual behavior, from 0 for completely heterosexual, to 6 for completely homosexual. Kinsey concluded that all but a small percentage of the population were to one degree or another bisexual (falling on the scale from 1 to 5). He also reported that 37% of men in the U.S. had achieved orgasm through contact with another male after adolescence.Kinsey's work may have been based on a biased population sample, and consequently his results have been disputed. Since Kinsey, a number of large-scale cross-cultural studies, involving tens of thousands of subjects selected at random, have consistently reported a percentage lower than Kinsey's estimate. At the same time, Paul Gebhard, Kinsey's successor as director of the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research, dedicated years to reviewing the Kinsey data and culling its purported contaminants. In 1979, Gebhard (with Alan B. Johnson) concluded that none of Kinsey's original estimates were significantly affected by the perceived bias, finding that 36.4% of men had engaged in both heterosexual and homosexual activities, as opposed to Kinsey's 37%.
Modern survey results
- Australia 2003: The largest and most thorough survey in Australia to date was conducted by telephone interview with 19,307 respondents between the ages of 16 and 59 in 2001/2002. The study found that 97.4% of men identified as heterosexual, 1.6% as gay and 0.9% as bisexual. For women 97.7% identified as heterosexual, 0.8% as gay and 1.4% as bisexual. Nevertheless, 8.6% of men and 15.1% of women reported either feelings of attraction to the same sex or some sexual experience with the same sex. Half the men and two thirds of the women who had same sex sexual experience regarded themselves as heterosexual rather than homosexual.Sex in Australia: The Australian study of health and relationships, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society. (Published as the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health vol 27 no 2.)
- Canada 1988: A study of 5,514 college and university students under the age of 25 found 1% who were homosexual and 1% who were bisexual. King et al. (1988). Canada, Youth and AIDS Study. Kingston, ON: Queen's University.
- Canada 1998: A stratified random sample of 750 males aged 18 to 27 in Calgary, Canada included questions on sexual activity and orientation. 15.3% of men "reported being homosexual to some degree" on the basis of three (often overlapping) measures of homosexuality: (1) voluntary, same-gender sexual contact from age 12 to 27: 14.0%; (2) overlapping homosexual (5.9%) and/or bisexual (6.1%) self-identification: 11.1%; and (3) exclusive (4.3%) and non-exclusive (4.9%) same-gender sexual relationships in past 6 months: 9.2%.Christopher Bagley, Ph.D. and Pierre Tremblay, B.Sc., B.Ed., On the prevalence of homosexuality and bisexuality in a random community survey of 750 men aged 18 to 27, The Journal of Homosexuality, Vol. 36, No. 2, 1998, p. 1-18. [Abstract]
- Canada 2003: A survey of 135,000 Canadians found that 1.0% of the respondents identified themselves as homosexual and 0.7% identified themselves as bisexual. About 1.3% of men considered themselves homosexual, about twice the proportion of 0.7% among women. However, 0.9% of women reported being bisexual, slightly higher than the proportion of 0.6% among men. 2.0 % of those in the 18-35 age bracket considered themselves to be either homosexual or bisexual, but the number decreased to 1.9 among 35-44 year olds, and further still to 1.2% in the population aged 45-59. Quebec and British Columbia had higher percentages than the national average at 2.3% and 1.9%, respectively.Statistics Canada, Canadian Community Health Survey, Cycle 2.1. off-site links: [Main survey page].
- Denmark 1992: A random survey found that 2.7% of the 1,373 men who responded to their questionnaire had homosexual experience (intercourse).Melbye, M. & Biggar, R.J. (1992). Interactions between persons at risk for AIDS and the general population in Denmark. American Journal of Epidemiology, 135(6), 593-602.
- France 1992: A study of 20,055 people found that 4.1% of the men and 2.6% of the women had at least one occurrence of intercourse with person of the same sex during their lifetime. ANRS: Agence Nationale de Recherches sur le Sida investigators (1992). AIDS and sexual behavior in France. Nature, 360(3), Dec. 3, 1992, 407-409.
- Norway 1988: In a random survey of 6,300 Norwegians, 3.5% of the men and 3% of the women reported that they had had a homosexual experience sometime in their life. Sundet, J.M., et al. Prevalence of risk-prone sexual behaviour in the general population of Norway. In: Global Impact of AIDS, edited by Alan F. Fleming et al. (New York: Alan R. Liss, 1988), 53-60.
- United Kingdom 1992: A study of 8,337 British men found that 6.1% had had "any homosexual experience" and 3.6% had "1+ homosexual partner ever." Johnson, A.M. et al. (1992). Sexual lifestyles and HIV risk. Nature, 360(3), Dec. 3, 1992, 410-412.
- United States 1990-1992: The American National Health Interview Survey does household interviews of the civilian non-institutionalized population. The results of three of these surveys, done in 1990-1991 and based on over 9,000 responses each time, found between 2-3% of the people responding said yes to a set of statements which included "You are a man who has had sex with another man at some time since 1977, even one time." Dawson, D. & Hardy, A.M. (1990-1992). National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control, Advance Data, 204, 1990-1992.
- United States 1992: The National Health and Social Life Survey asked 3,432 respondents whether they had any homosexual experience. The findings were 1.3% for women within the past year, and 4.1% since 18 years; for men, 2.7% within the past year, and 4.9% since 18 years;[link]
- United States 1993: The Alan Guttmacher Institute found of sexually-active men aged 20–39 found that 2.3% had experienced same-sex sexual activity in the last ten years, and 1.1% reported exclusive homosexual contact during that time.John O.G. Billy, Koray Tanfer, William R. Grady, and Daniel H. Klepinger, The Sexual Behavior of Men in the United States, Family Planning Perspectives, The Alan Guttmacher Institute, vol. 25, no. 2 (March/April 1993). [Guttmacher Institute home page]
- United States 1998: A random survey of 1672 males (number used for analysis) aged 15 to 19. Subjects were asked a number of questions, including questions relating to same-sex activity. This was done using two methods — a pencil and paper method, and via computer, supplemented by a verbal rendition of the questionnaire heard through headphones — which obtained vastly different results. There was a 400% increase in males reporting homosexual activity when the computer-audio system was used: from a 1.5% to 5.5% positive response rate; the homosexual behavior with the greatest reporting difference (800%, adjusted) was to the question "Ever had receptive anal sex with another male (his penis in your rectum or butt)": 0.1% to 0.8%.Turner CF, Ku L, Rogers SM, Lindberg LD, Pleck JH, and Sonenstein FL (1998). Adolescent sexual behavior, drug use, and violence: Increased reporting with computer survey technology. Science Magazine, 280(5365-8), 867-73.)
- United States 2003: Smith's 2003 analysis of National Opinion Research Center data[PDF link] states that 4.9% of sexually active American males had had a male sexual partner since age 18, but that "since age 18 less than 1% are [exclusively] gay and 4+% bisexual". In the top twelve urban areas however, the rates are double the national average. Smith adds that "It is generally believed that including adolescent behavior would further increase these rates."The NORC data has been criticised because the original design sampling techniques were not followed, and depended upon direct self report regarding masturbation and same sex behaviors. (For example, the original data in the early 1990s reported that approximately 40% of adult males had never masturbated--a finding inconsistent with some other studies.)
It is important to note, however, that these numbers are subject to many of the pitfalls inherent in researching sensitive social issues. It is possible that survey results may be biased by under-reporting, for instance. (See note 1.) The frequent use of non-random samples (white college students) in many studies could also serve to skew the data.
In general, most research agrees that the number of people who have had multiple same-gender sexual experiences is fewer than the number of people who have had a single such experience, and that the number of people who identify themselves as exclusively homosexual is fewer than the number of people who have had multiple homosexual experiences.
In addition, major historical shifts can occur in the prevalence of homosexuality. For example, the Hamburg Institute for Sexual Research conducted a survey over the sexual behavior of young people in 1970, and repeated it in 1990. Whereas in 1970 18% of the boys aged 16 and 17 reported to have made same-sex sexual experiences, the number had dropped to 2% by 1990. [link] "Ever since homosexuality has become the subject of public debate, boys' fear to be seen as queer has increased," the director of the institute, Volkmar Sigusch, suggested in a 1998 article for a German medical journal. [link]
The factual accuracy of the above paragraph is .
In 2005, as part of the statistical and financial measurements required to impliment the UK's new Civil Partnerships Act, the British government's H.M. Treasury actuaries calculated that there are 3.6 million British people who may want to enter into a gay or lesbian civil partnership arrangement. This is equal to around 6 percent of the UK population.
References
Further reading
- Diamond, Milton (1993). Homosexuality and bisexuality in different populations. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 22(4), 291-310. (Discusses the design of studies which attempt to measure sexual orientation.)
See also
- Sexual orientation
- *Genetics and sexual orientation
- *Environment, choice, and sexual orientation
- Homosexuality and transgender
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