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 Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland, etc. 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 refering to one's sexual orientation.
Some demographic labels refer specifically to certain types of sexual behavior, as distinct from orientation or identity. See, for example, Men who have sex with men (MSM).
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 or ritual sex acts are enforced through social pressure, or in some cases, force. For example, the LDS Church considers heterosexual marriage a requirement for entry to the highest level of heaven.
Further complicating things, in many societies, both historical and modern, gender is seen as something not entirely fixed, as is the case with the Hijra of India and the Berdache in many Native American cultures, and in current Western culture transgender.
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.
Unfortunately, Kinsey's work was based on a population sample that was likely to have been heavily biased 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.
For more information, see the article on the Kinsey Reports.
Modern survey results
The factual accuracy of the final paragraph below and the presentation of statistical summaries in the following section is disputed.
- Smith's 2003 analysis of National Opinion Research Center data [1] 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," with Turner et al.(1997) finding that in a computer questionnaire 5.5% of adolescents 15 to 19 reported same-sex activity. (Science, 280 (5365): 867)
The European rates corroborate the figure of 4.9%, though when broader criteria are used (including manual contact) the rates almost triple, to 13.4% (Netherlands).
- A 1998 survey by Christopher Bagley and Pierre Tremblay gave a figure of 15.3% of men who "reported being homosexual to some degree" including "overlapping homosexual (5.9%) and/or bisexual (6.1%) self-identification". [2]
- In 1993 the Alan Guttmacher Institute ("a nonprofit organization focused on sexual and reproductive health research, policy analysis and public education" [4]) found 1.8 to 2.8 percent of men reported a sexual contact with another male within the last ten years.
In general, surveys quoted by anti-gay activists tend to show figures nearer 1%, while surveys quoted by gay activists tend to show figures nearer 10%, with a mean of 4-5% figure most often cited in mainstream media reports.
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. [5] "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. [6]
The factual accuracy of the above paragraph is disputed.
Footnote
[1]: 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.)
