Roughly one in 30 young people in Britain identify themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB), new figures suggest.

This is up from one in 38 in 2012, according to estimates by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The national average is around one in 60.

The ONS figures show a 45% increase in three years in the number of people identifiying as bisexual – from 230,000 in 2012 to 334,000 last year – with more young people saying they are bi than gay. Among 16 to 24-year-olds, 1.8% said they were bisexual, compared with 1.5% who said they were gay or lesbian.



The 2015 figures also show that London is the region with the highest proportion of people identifying themselves as LGB (2.6%). The east of England has the lowest percentage (1.2%).

The figure for those aged 16-24 (3.3%) compares with just 0.6% of people aged 65 and over.

Pamela Cobb, an ONS statistician, said: “In 2015, the majority (93.7%) of the UK population identified themselves as heterosexual or straight, with 1.7% identifying as LGB, the remainder either identifying as ‘other’, ‘don’t know’ or refusing to respond.”

The figures refer only to sexual identity and do not cover gender identity or necessarily reflect sexual attraction or behaviour. Overall, more males (2%) identified as LGB than females (1.5%)

Approximately 0.4% of the total identified as “other” while a larger group of 4.1% either refused or did not know how to identify themselves.

More than two-thirds of the LGB population were single, never married or civil partnered, the ONS said.

This is possibly because of the young age of LGB people compared with the population as a whole and the fact that same-sex legal unions are relatively new.

The figures were part of the ONS annual population survey and included respondents aged 16 and over.