(Bloomberg) -- Nearly one fifth of people living in the Netherlands identify as lesbian, gay, bi-plus, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual, according to the first estimate published by the country’s statistics agency.
There are 2.7 million LGBTQIA people in the country, which corresponds to 18% of residents aged 15 years and older, the CBS said in a report on Friday. The research was based on a survey of more than 182,000 residents.
The Netherlands has been a front runner in advancing LGBTQIA+ rights, having decriminalized homosexuality in 1971 and becoming the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. Yet the tradition of tolerance and openness has been marred off late by rising incidents of aggression against the community and declining rates of same-sex acceptance among the youth.
Only 43% of secondary school students in Amsterdam thought it was normal for “two people of the same sex to be in love with each other,” with the figure declining from 63% in 2021, according to a study published by the municipal health service this year.
The Netherlands has been failing to create a more open society for all people lately, Robbert Dijkgraaf, the country’s former minister of education, culture and science said in an interview with Bloomberg last year. In recent years, “we also have seen more violence, more aggressiveness whether it’s soccer supporters or destructions of memorials,” he said.
LGBTQIA people in the Netherlands are predominantly younger and are likely to live in highly urbanized areas, the CBS said. Those with a bi-plus sexual orientation, or people attracted to more than one gender, are the largest group, according to the report.
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