Nearly 20% of Americans have had a gay sexual experience

A new survey has revealed that nearly 20% of Americans have had at least one same-sex sexual encounter in their lifetimes.

According to findings published by YouGov, when asked ‘Have you ever had a sexual experience with a member of the same sex?’ 18% of respondents said ‘Yes’.

Broken down by gender, 15% of men said they’d had a gay sexual experience, compared to 20% of women.

While 20% of 18-29 year-old’s responded ‘Yes’ to the question, 30-44 year-olds were the age group most likely to have experimented, with a quarter (25%) saying they’d had at least one gay experience in their lifetime.

Comparatively, 15% of 45-60 year-olds and just 10% of those aged 65 and over answered yes to the question.

The study also found that almost a quarter of Americans don’t identify as “100% heterosexual”. Asked to rank themselves from 0 (exclusively heterosexual) to 6 (exclusively homosexual) on the Kinsey Scale, 78% of respondents said they were completely heterosexual with 4% saying they were completely homosexual and 16% saying they fall somewhere in between.

The American findings come a week after YouGov published the results of a similar study in the UK, which found that half of young Brits said they didn’t identify as “100% heterosexual” – click here to find out more.

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