One in eight Gen Z Stockholmers now identifies as gay or bisexual

[Celerity]

As many as 12 percent of Stockholmers now identify as either gay or bisexual, with the share of people in the city saying they are sexually attracted to multiple genders doubling over just a decade.

https://www.thelocal.se/20241205/one-in-eight-gen-z-stockholmers-now-identifies-as-gay-or-bi


Stockholm City Hall seen across the water through a heart in the rainbow colours of the gay pride movement. Photo: Christina Olsson/TT

A new study carried out by the Karolinska Insititutet medical university and Region Stockholm, which runs healthcare in and around the Swedish capital, found a sharp rise in people identifying as bisexual between 2010 and 2021. "This might have something to do with increased social acceptance. We see that it is growing most in younger generations and this is because they have grown up in a more accepting climate," said Willi Zhang, the post-doctoral researcher at Karolinska who was the report's main author.

Taking all ages together, 3.1 percent of people in Stockholm identified as bisexual in 2021, up from 1.6 percent in 2010, the report found. This compares to between 1.7 percent and 2 percent of the population who define themselves as homosexual. The rise in people identifying as bisexual was even more marked in younger generations, particularly in Generation Z, classed as those born between the middle of the 1990s and the start of the 2010s, of whom fully 12 percent identified as either bisexual or homosexual.

Of Generation Y, or "Millennials", those born between the start of the 1980s and the middle of the 1990s, 7.8 percent identified as either homosexual or bisexual. Earlier studies have shown that bisexuals are more likely to face ill health and discrimination, with a greater risk of depression and attempted suicide.

"There are studies from other countries which suggest that bisexuals risk being discriminated against by both heterosexuals and homosexuals, so they are under pressure from both sides," Zhang explained. According to Zhang, a similar rise in the share of bisexuals has been found in similar studied in the US and the UK. The research, the result of a survey of 98,000 people over the age of 16, was published as a research letter in Jama Network Open.