Bisexuals Are On Track To Take Over The World, Study Suggests

From: Towleroad

We’ve known bisexuality was on the rise for a while now, but it appears to be happening at faster rate than ever before.

A new study out of the U.K. has found that the number of people who identify as bisexual has absolutely skyrocketed in just three years.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 230,000 people identified as bisexual back in 2012. In 2015, that number has jumped to 334,000. That’s a 45 percent increase.

Not only that, but for the first time ever, more people ages 16 to 24 describe themselves as bi rather than gay or lesbian, increasing from 76,000 in 2012 to an astounding 133,000 in 2015.

The number of people who identify as solely gay or lesbian saw a much smaller uptick, going from 541,000 to 586,000 over the same three years.

Of course, gay, lesbian, and bisexuals still only make up a very small percentage of the U.K. population as a whole, coming in at around 1.7 percent in total, with 1.1 percent falling into the gay/lesbian category and 0.6 percent falling into the bisexual category. Straight people make up 93.7 percent of the population. And the remainder fall into the “other” category, either saying the “didn’t know” or they declined to answer the question.

Researchers also discovered that younger people are more likely to identify as something other than straight–3.3 percent of people ages 16 to 24 did so, compared to 2.7 percent ages 25 to 34, 1.7 percent ages 35 to 49, and only 0.6 percent in the over 65 crowd.

According to the ONS report, “Sexual identity does not necessarily reflect sexual attraction or sexual behavior–these are separate concepts with the Office for National Statistics currently does not measure.”