LGBT+ - Who and where?
KEY FIGURES
Age
Age
11.5 % of persons aged 16-24 years ...
5 % of persons aged 55-64 years ...
... identify as LGBT+.
Source: Danish Institute for Human Rights’ own calculations based on SHILD (2020).
Place of residence
Capital region: 9.3 %
Northern Jutland: 7.3 %
Central Jutland: 7.3 %
Southern Denmark: 6 %
Zealand: 6.5 %
Share who identify as LGBT+.
Source: Danish Institute for Human Rights’ own calculations based on SHILD (2020).
Immigrants and descendants
7 % of persons of Danish origin ...
10.5 % of immigrants and descendants ...
... identify as LGBT+.
Source: Danish Institute for Human Rights’ own calculations based on SHILD (2020).
Editing was completed September 2023
LGBT+ persons are found in all age groups. However, young people are overrepresented in the LGBT+ community with more than twice as many LGBT+ persons in the age group 16-24 years compared to the age group 45-64 years.
Openness about sexual orientation may be a factor. For instance, some do not wish to answer survey questions about sexual orientation. As evident from the figure above, almost twice as many respondents aged 55-64 years as respondents aged 16-24 years do not wish to answer the question about sexual orientation. Moreover, the group of homosexual persons aged 55-64 years were young when the number deaths due to AIDS peaked, which may help explain the relatively small share of LGBT+ persons in the senior age group.
Age
There is a slightly greater tendency among LGBT+ persons compared to heterosexual persons to live in big cities; even though the former are represented throughout the country. Around 9 % of the population on the Capital Region of Denmark and 6 % of the population in Southern Denmark and in Zealand identify as LGBT+.
In earlier times, the majority of persons married to a person of the same sex lived in the Capital Region; but that has changed. Calculations based on data from Statistics Denmark (FAM44N) show that while 70 % of persons married to a person of the same sex lived in the Capital Region in 1990, this was true of only 50 % in 2022.
This movement away from the capital may be due to the fact that LGBT+ persons living outside the capital feel more and more comfortable about being open about their sexual orientation and about entering into marriage with a person of the same sex. Since 2021, all Danish municipalities have been home to at least one married same-sex couple.
Recent years have seen increased focus on ensuring that LGBT+ persons all over the country are able to lead a normal life without prejudice and feel included in society. LGBT+ Denmark supports LGBT+ communities in 21 towns all over the country, including social networks (AURA) for young people below the age of 18. Big cities like Copenhagen and Aarhus have passed local LGBT+ policies, and Odense has one in the pipeline. Aalborg municipality has passed funding for a diversity centre, which i.a. shall house the local LGBT+ community. The LGBT+ Denmark website provides a list of prides throughout the country.
Place of residence
LGBT+ persons of immigrant or descendant background may experience more marginalisation than other LGBT+ persons, as they are susceptible to double discrimination and report increasingly low well-being.
than among persons of Danish origin. This is a significant difference, but because this is a relatively small group, it is not possible to say which countries LGBT+ persons of immigrant or descendant background originate from. That is, the group includes immigrants and descendants from other Nordic countries, EU member states as well as other countries.
More immigrants and descendants identify as transgender or nonbinary. This is also evident from other surveys, which show that there is an increasing number of immigrants and descendants in the transgender group who receive treatment in the Danish healthcare system or change their legal sex.
It is unclear why the share of LGBT+ persons is larger among immigrants and descendants than among persons of Danish origin. It may be explained in part by the fact that descendants are relatively young. Moreover, Denmark’s international status as an LGBT+-friendly country with a high score on ILGA’s LGBTI rights index may contribute to a higher influx of LGBT+ immigrants or refugees.
Immigrant: A person born abroad whose parents are both foreign citizens or were born abroad.
Descendant: A person born in Denmark whose parents are either immigrants or descendants with foreign citizenship. If one or both parents born in Denmark are granted Danish citizenship, their children will no longer be classified as descendants. However, if both parents born in Denmark maintain their foreign citizenship, their children will be classified as descendants.