Census reveals sexual orientation and gender identity figures for the first time

New census figures have included data on sexual orientation and gender identity for the first time.

People aged 16 and over were asked to provide the information on a voluntary basis to help build a snapshot of society.

The census, is carried out every 10 years and the data showed very few differences between Wales and England with respect to sexual orientation.

Analysis showing sexual orientation revealed 89,4% of people in Wales aged 16 and above were straight or heterosexual.

1.5% of the Welsh population described themselves as gay or lesbian and 1.2% described themselves as bisexual, which was slightly lower than the 1.3% in England.

0.18% of people in Wales described themselves as pansexual, whilst 0.6% said they were asexual and 0.2% described themselves as queer.

7.6% of people in Wales who took part in the census did not provide an answer which was similar to England, at 7.5%.

The Welsh local authorities with the largest LGB+ populations were Cardiff at 5.3%, Ceredigion with 4.9% and Swansea at 3.4%.

More detailed understanding

Data showing sexual orientation by age and by sex will be published on 25 January, enabling a more detailed understanding of different identities.

The percentage of the population aged 16 years and over who reported that their gender identity was different from their sex at birth was slightly lower in Wales at 0.40% compared to England 0.55%.

0.06% of people in Wales identified as non-binary.

Ceredigion was one of the five local authorities in the UK to have the highest proportion of the population identifying as non-binary at 0.23%.

Joining Ceredigion was Brighton and Hove who had the highest percentage at 0.35% followed by Norwich at 0.33% and Cambridge with 0.26% of the population identifying as non-binary.

Data analysis

In Wales, the local authorities with the largest proportion of the population aged 16 years and over whose gender identity was different from their sex at birth were recorded in Cardiff at 0.71% and Ceredigion at 0.70%.

In Wales, Cardiff had the highest percentage of people who identified as a trans man at 0.12% along with the highest percentage of people who identified as a trans woman at 0.13%.

More detailed data and analysis on gender identity will be published in the coming months