First NI census to track sexual orientation finds 2.1% identify as LGB+

The latest census results focus on employment, marital status and sexual orientation.
(Niall Carson/PA)
PA Archive
Rebecca Black21 March 2023

The first census in Northern Ireland to track sexual orientation has found that 2.1% of the region’s population identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or other.

The Census 2021 figures, published on Tuesday, found that 31,600 people aged 16 or over in the region identified as LGB+.

Some 1.364 million adults (90%) identified as straight or heterosexual, and 119,000 (8%) did not answer the question, or preferred not to say.

Belfast identifying as LGB+" data-source="Census 2021">

By location, 4.1% in Belfast identified as LGB+ compared with 1.1% in Mid Ulster.

The figures indicate that Northern Ireland has the lowest percentage of people in the UK who identify as LGB+, after Wales (3%) and England (3.2%).

The Scottish census was run separately a year later.

The latest information, released by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra), also looks at employment, qualifications and marital status.

It found that of 1.515 million adults in Northern Ireland, 849,000 (56%) were in employment, 42,000 (2.8%) were unemployed and 624,000 (41%) were economically inactive due to being retired, long-term sick or disabled.

Around one in three said their highest level of qualification was a degree/NVQ 4 or above, while just under a quarter said they had no qualifications.

In terms of marital status, there has been a fall in the percentage of adults who are married over the last six censuses, from 61% in 1971 to 46% in 2021, and a rise in those who are single from 31% to 38%.

Around 7% of the population aged three or over (127,000) said they could speak Irish, and of those, 70,000 said they spoke Irish at least once a week.

Some 3.3% (61,000 people) aged three and over said they could speak the Ulster-Scots language, and 41,000 of those said they spoke Ulster-Scots at least once a week.

In terms of population make-up, 13.5% (257,000) were born outside Northern Ireland, with 105,000 having come to live in the region in the last 10 years, and 66,000 having arrived between 2001 and 2010.

Census 2021 was carried out in March last year.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in