Sexual Orientation in the Census

We conducted a small scale postal survey as a first step to understand public attitudes to a sexual orientation question and the feasibility of mounting the question in a Census.

4,400 individual Census style forms were sent to a geographically representative random sample of Scottish households. There were 4 variants of the form which are explained in paragraph 3.1.3 of the report. Half of the forms included a sexual orientation question, half did not.

There was no difference in the response rate between form variants. However the overall response rate for the survey was only 31 per cent and certain groups were more likely to respond than others. This result cannot be generalised to draw conclusions about the response rate of the public as a whole.

The results from the sexual orientation question are summarised in table 4 of the report. Overall only 2.2 per cent of respondents declared non-heterosexual sexual orientation. The non-response to the question was around 6 per cent and a further 8.5 per cent of respondents selected “Prefer not to answer”. Therefore in this test the percentage of respondents who did not provide useful data is around 14 per cent. This far outweighs the percentage of respondents who declared a non-heterosexual sexual orientation. The survey results call into question the accuracy of data gathered by such a question and hence the utility of any such data.

Further work to address the requirement for data on sexual orientation will be considered in partnership with representatives of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community, partner organisations in the UK Census and other interested parties in the Government Statistical Service.