This question seemed like a quite easy one, as it should simply be a question of statistics. However, some clouding factors exists, that results in several different numbers being reported. People are resisting to label themselves as homosexuals due to the social stigma this carries, some are uncertain about their sexuality and if the division into gay/straight is correct for them, and lastly: political issues leads to over- and underreporting of the percentage.

WEB RESOURCES

• The Family Research Institute questions the “Classic” 10% percentage, and by citing several reports, give the number as between 2 and 4%.

• Wikipedia’s article on homosexuality quotes the numbers from the 1948 Kinsley report, saying that 4% is exclusively homosexual their whole life, while 10% defined themselves as gay for a period of minimum 3 years.

• Exodus International quotes reports that give the number to be less than 1%.

• The Family Research Council similarly argues that the number is 0.9% for men and 0.4% for women.

• A 1987 research report on American sexuality, gives the numbers to 2.8 and 1.5% respectively.

• World Net Daily quotes a 2005 report where 2,3% reported themselves as homosexuals, equally for men and women. Including the people that answered “bisexual” or  “something else” adds up to 8% of the population.

• This Singapore page lists the findings from several reports, giving numbers from 2,8 to 8%.

• The home-page of the Kinsley Institute has the famous 1948 and 1953 reports, among lots of other statistics on sexual issues. It also carries a page quoting sexual statistics from several other research reports, who finds the percentage to be between 2,3 and 7,7% for men, and 1,3 to 7,7% for women.

If you know about other interesting websites about this question, please give me a tip, and I’ll put the resource on this page.

INDICATIONS FROM THE INVESTIGATION

There is no disagreement over whether a percentage of the population feel themselves to be homosexual, but the actual size of the number is disputed. A number between 3 and 5% seems likely to the investigation at this time. More research on the issue, and a continued lowering of the social implications of declaring oneself as homosexual, will probably give a more exact number in the years to come.

The research on this question is not old, so there is as yet not enough information to decide whether the percentage is a constant number in the population or not.