Labels such as ‘homosexual’ and ‘mostly heterosexual’ should be added to the next census, according to LGBT charity BeLonG To.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is expected to add more categories in the 2027 census, including updating categories for gender and sexuality. 

BeLonG To Youth Service CEO Moninne Griffith said it is essential sexuality is included in the next census. 

“We don't have accurate picture of how many of us and where we're living, that kind of thing,” she told Moncrieff. 

“There is quite a bit of research done on the LGBT community here in Ireland including one that we just launched with Trinity College last week. 

“It paints part of a picture, but if we don't have an accurate picture of how many LGBT people live in this country, it's hard for us to then talk to health services, people in planning.” 

Sexuality in the census

Ms Griffith said six to 10% of the Irish population is LGBTQ+, according to estimations from the Kinsey scale. 

“But in other jurisdictions such as the UK, it’s higher than that,” she said. 

“It's important in the way that we measure and track the number of people, for example, of different races living here in Ireland or different abilities living here in Ireland to give greater visibility to a minority community.” 

BeLonG To have suggested labels such as “homosexual”, “bisexual” and “mostly heterosexual” should be in the census to get a clear picture of different people’s experiences.

“It's really important that we're able to disaggregate those, because obviously, the experiences of a lesbian woman are going to be very different to those of the gay man,” Ms Griffith said. 

“In terms of looking at health services, including mental health services, it's important that we have that broken down.” 

'Mostly heterosexual'

Explaining the term “mostly heterosexual”, Ms Griffith said studies in the UK suggest “a lot more people who self-identify as mostly heterosexual than completely heterosexual”. 

“Looking back at the Kinsey scale, and people's experience of sexual orientation, it's not really as black and white as we may have thought 50 years ago,” she said. 

“It's important that people get to self-identify and see themselves [and] their life experiences reflected back in census.” 

Ms Griffith also recommended an option in the census to say “other” and describe your sexual identity yourself.  

The main questions in the census currently ask for age, sex, relationship status, nationality and current address. 

The CSO currently surveys sexual orienation and gender in its Pulse Survey, but not in the census.