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 that differ from medical norms for male or female bodies.
LGBTQIA+ advocates respond
Anna Brown, CEO of Equality Australia, highlighted the significance of this milestone. “Up until now, 4.5 per cent of Australians, or almost one million people, have been hidden from our national data sets,” she said.
“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.”
Brown emphasised that the findings show LGBTIQ+ people reside in every corner of the nation, including regional, rural, metropolitan, and remote areas. “This means local councils, service providers, and government agencies will be able to better serve the needs of our communities,” she added.
“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.”
Just.Equal Australia also welcomed the release of the data, saying it will send a strong message to all parties ahead of next year’s federal election.
“The ABS estimate highlights that LGBTI+ people are a key constituency and a powerful voting bloc ahead of next year’s federal election,” Just.Equal spokesperson Rodney Croome said.
“This constituency is even larger when we include the families, friends and allies of LGBTI+ people.”
“The ABS data is a reminder to all political parties that they must have policies recognising the human rights of LGBTI+ people and addressing the disadvantages we face in areas such as health, housing, employment, education and public safety.”
Trans advocate Teddy Cook, who peer-reviewed the ABS survey, said the findings affirm long-held truths.
“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,” Cook said. “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.”
Cook also highlighted the generational shift evident in the data. “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,” he said.
Morgan Carpenter, Executive Director of InterAction for Health and Human Rights, acknowledged the challenges of collecting accurate data on intersex people but praised the ABS’s efforts.
“I’m glad of engagement by the ABS over many years to find ways of respectfully counting intersex people,” Carpenter said.
“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.”
More information can be found from Estimates and characteristics of LGBTI+ populations in Australia on the ABS website.
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