Which country has the highest population of gay

Despite major changes in laws and norms surrounding the issue of same-sex marriage and the rights of LGBT people around the world , public opinion on the acceptance of homosexuality in society remains sharply divided by country, region and economic development.

As it was in , when the question was last asked, attitudes on the acceptance of homosexuality are shaped by the country in which people live. And publics in the Asia-Pacific region generally are split. And supporters of several right-wing populist parties in Europe are also less likely to see homosexuality as acceptable.

Approximately 80 percent of the world identifies as heterosexual, and the remaining 12 percent of the world do not report how they identify. The worldwide LGBTQI+ population by country reports estimate that approximately eight percent of the world identifies as homosexual, bisexual, or pansexual.

Homosexuality should be accepted by society OR Homosexuality should not be accepted by society. In many countries, those on the political right are less accepting of homosexuality than those on the left. For this report, we used data from a survey conducted across 34 countries from May 13 to Oct.

In the Asia-Pacific region, face-to-face surveys were conducted in India, Indonesia and the Philippines, while phone surveys were administered in Australia, Japan and South Korea. On a regional basis, acceptance of homosexuality is highest in Western Europe and North America.

These are among the major findings of a Pew Research Center survey conducted among 38, people in 34 countries from May 13 to Oct. The study is a follow-up to a report that found many of the same patterns as seen today, although there has been an increase in acceptance of homosexuality across many of the countries surveyed in both years.

United States. But even with these sharp divides, views are changing in many of the countries that have been surveyed since , when Pew Research Center first began asking this question. This includes a point increase since in South Africa and a point increase in South Korea over the same time period.

People in the Asia-Pacific region show little consensus on the subject. For more on acceptance of homosexuality over time among all the countries surveyed, see Appendix A. In many of the countries surveyed, there also are differences on acceptance of homosexuality by age, education, income and, in some instances, gender — and in several cases, these differences are substantial.

There also have been fairly large shifts in acceptance of homosexuality over the past 17 years in two very different places: Mexico and Japan. The survey shows that while majorities in 16 of the 34 countries surveyed say homosexuality should be accepted by society, global divides remain.

Political ideology also plays a role in acceptance of homosexuality. Pew Research Center has been gathering data on acceptance of homosexuality in the U. However, while it took nearly 15 years for acceptance to rise 13 points from to just before the federal legalization of gay marriage in June , there was a near equal rise in acceptance in just the four years since legalization.

In both countries, just over half said they accepted homosexuality in , but now closer to seven-in-ten say this. Here are the questions used for the report, along with responses, and the survey methodology. However, based on population size, social acceptance, and available surveys, here’s an estimate of the top 10 countries with the largest LGBTQ+ populations: 1.

Why?. This analysis focuses on whether people around the world think that homosexuality should be accepted by society or not. Estimated LGBTQ+ Population: ~ million (approximately 7% of the population). Many of the countries surveyed in and have seen a double-digit increase in acceptance of homosexuality.

In , Brazil was the country with the largest share of LGBT+ population at 15 percent. Spain and Switzerland followed next, with 14 and 13 percent of their population identifying as LGBT+. The top 13 countries with the biggest gay populations are surprisingly very rarely in the list of countries where gay marriage is legal.

In the three Latin American countries surveyed, strong majorities say they accept homosexuality in society. This is a function not only of economic development of nations, but also religious and political attitudes. The question is a long-term trend, first asked in the U. Respondents did not get any further instructions on how to interpret the question and no significant problems were noted during the fielding of the survey.

While acceptance has increased over the past two decades, the partisan divide on homosexuality in the U. For more on how the survey defines populist parties in Europe, see Appendix B. In general, people in wealthier and more developed economies are more accepting of homosexuality than are those in less wealthy and developed economies.

India also saw a point increase since , the first time the question was asked of a nationally representative sample there.