MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Survey shows Mexico is a gay-friendly place

Mexico turned out to be among the world's top ten countries with a non-heterosexual population

The National Survey on Sexual and Gender Diversity 2021 released in Mexico during the weekend showed that 5% of the people of that country recognized themselves as members of the LGBTI+ community. In other words, 95% of the population of 126 million claimed to be heterosexual.

According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) study, 1 in 20 Mexicans recognizes themselves as members of the lesbian, gay, and another gender (LGBTI+) community.

A survey conducted by the private firm Ipsos released in June 2021, showed that 11% of the population considered themselves as non-heterosexual. Insider Monkey's poll found that 6% of the population belonged to the LGBT+ community while insisting the country was among the world's top ten with a non-heterosexual population.

As per INEGI's research, the LGBTI+ population in Mexico amounts to five million people (5.1% of the population aged 15 and over). Regarding men, 4.2 % of them identified with an LGB+ sexual orientation and for women 5.3%, while 0.9% (909,000 people) identified as Trans+ (transgender, transsexual, non-binary, gender fluid, agender, among others).

The State of Mexico, the most populated in the country, featured the largest non-heterosexual population, with 490,000 people over 15 years old, followed by Mexico City with 311,000 people, while in third place was Veracruz, with 308,000. Of the five million people who identify themselves as part of the LGBTI+ population, 67.5% are between 15 and 29 years old, while 63% of the non-hetero population declared to be single, 13.9% were married, and 16.7% declared to live in a free union, while 64.3% identified themselves as economically active, and 35.7% as not active.

INEGI's survey was conducted from August 23, 2021, to January 16, 2022, in nearly 44,000 homes nationwide.
According to Ipsos, Mexico is one of the countries that shows greater support for the non-heterosexual community regarding same-sex marriages, visibility, parenting, and other issues. It also ranked as one of the top three countries where people said they have a family member, friend, or work colleague from the LGBT community, behind Brazil and Chile.

In Mexico, 76% of the people agreed with same-sex marriage and 21%, the highest percentage recorded in the entire survey of 27 countries, said they had attended one of these weddings, while 21% of Mexican adults have attended a public event in support of LGBT people, such as a Pride march, and 60% said they agreed that same-sex couples should be as likely as other parents to successfully raise children. The country was also one of the top nations, tied for third with Italy, in supporting business activism on LGBT Equality with 61%.

On Insider Monkey's list of countries with the highest number of people declaring themselves LGBT+, Mexico ranked 8th with 6%. The list is topped by Israel (8.2%), Japan (7.6%), Germany (7.4%), Spain (6.9%), the United Kingdom (6.5%), Netherlands (6.4%), and Austria (6.2%).