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Almost 7% of Aussies in their 20s identify as gay

By Will Stroude

A new study has found that almost 7% of Australian in their 20s identify as gay – the highest proportion of any age bracket.

Roy Morgan Research surveyed almost 180,000 Australians aged 14 and over between 2006 and 2014, in one of the biggest surveys of its kind, Gay Star News reports.

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The number of people aged between 20 and 29 who said they agreed with the statement ‘I consider myself a homosexual,’ climbed to 6.5% during 2012-14 – up from just 4.4% in 2006-2008.

During the period 2012-14, 7.6% of males in their 20s identified as gay compared to 5.5% of females.

Among all ages groups combined, in 2006-2008 around 2.4% of all people surveyed identified as gay, with the percentage rising to 3.4% between 2009-11 and 3.4% by 2012-14.

Roy Morgan Research CEO Michele Levine said smaller percentages in the older age brackets indicated that past generations are still more cautious about being open about their sexuality to strangers.

“With the issue of same-sex marriage once again in the spotlight, trying to determine the ‘real’ number of gay people in Australia is pretty irrelevant, except perhaps for politicians wishing to count up potential votes,” she said.

“Whether it’s 1 in 50 or 1 in 15, there isn’t some minimum threshold for what counts as discrimination. However the rising rate across all age groups shows that people who consider themselves homosexual are becoming more open about it, which reflects increasing acceptance across society”.

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