19 Dec 2024 – Community groups have welcomed the first ever estimates of LGBTIQ+ populations across the country by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Data released today by the ABS estimates that 4.5 per cent of Australians aged 16 years or older are LGBTI+, meaning more than 900,000 Australians fit under the LGBTI+ umbrella.
Almost 10 per cent of younger people aged 16 to 24 identify as LGBTI+.
This is the first time the ABS has had a sufficient sample size to extract such findings by combining the results from four household surveys, totalling almost 45,000 respondents.
Roughly 3.6 per cent of Australians are lesbian, gay, bisexual or describe their sexual orientation with a different term (LGB+) while 1 per cent of the country, about 178,900 people, are trans and gender diverse.
About 0.3 per cent of Australians report they know they were born with variations of sex characteristics, often referred to as intersex. Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (gonads, chromosomes, hormones, for example) that differ from medical norms for male or female bodies.
Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown said:
“Up until now 4.5 per cent of Australians, or almost one million people, have been hidden from our national data sets."
“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 ABS survey said:
“These data confirm for us 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.
“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.”
InterAction for Health and Human Rights Executive Director Morgan Carpenter said:
"I’m glad of engagement by the ABS over many years to find ways of respectfully counting intersex people. Misconceptions linking intersex to gender and sexuality, and legacies of clinical secrecy, make this complicated. These factors mean that the findings do not give us a count of people with innate variations of sex characteristics, but they provide a crucial first step that can be built on in the years ahead."
Media contact: Tara Ravens, tara.ravens@equalityaustralia.org.au, 0408 898 154
