Labour force status of gay or lesbian adults in New Zealand

LGBT+: people aged 18+ whose gender is different from their sex recorded at birth (transgender, or another gender/non-binary), OR report a sexual identity other than heterosexual (gay or lesbian, bisexual, or another sexual identity).
Agender: someone who does not identify with any gender.
Another gender: used to encompass any genders that are not male or female. This term is used in the Stats NZ gender question format and classification.
Asexual: a person who experiences a persistent lack of sexual attraction or desire for sexual activity. Asexuality is distinct from celibacy, which is the deliberate abstention from sexual activity.
Bisexual: a person who is sexually attracted to more than one sex or gender, including their own.
Cisgender: refers to a person whose gender is the same as the sex recorded at their birth.
Demisexual: a person who only experiences sexual attraction to people with whom they form an emotional connection (from Outline NZ).
Gay: a person who is sexually attracted to people of the same sex or gender. More commonly used in relation to males.
Gender: refers to a person’s social and personal identity as male, female, or another gender or genders that may be non-binary. Gender may include gender identity and/or gender expression. A person’s current gender may differ from the sex recorded at their birth and may differ from what is indicated on their current legal documents. A person’s gender may change over time. Some people may not identify with any gender.
Genderqueer: umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different to the binary male or female (from Outline NZ).
Gender fluid: a person who does not identify as having a fixed gender (from Outline NZ).
Gender identity: refers to a person’s internal and individual experience of gender.
Heterosexual: a person who is sexually attracted to people of different sex or gender than their own. Straight is an alternative term.
Lesbian: a woman who is sexually attracted to people of the same sex or gender.
Non-binary: a term to describe a person who does not identify exclusively as a man or a woman. There are many different ways that people may be non-binary. In the context of this report, it is used to describe people who reported their gender as ‘another gender’. This is to improve plain English sentences in line with how these groups are typically described in Aotearoa. While there is broad alignment with these terms conceptually, note that not all respondents grouped here will identify with the term non-binary or another gender. Terms people used to further specify their gender in the survey included genderfluid, takatāpui, and trans.
Pansexual: a person who is sexually attracted to other people regardless of their sex or gender.
Queer: an umbrella term encompassing all identities and expressions outside of the heterosexual, monogamous, and gender normative majority (from Outline NZ).
Sexual orientation: it covers three key aspects - sexual attraction, sexual behaviour, and sexual identity. These are related – sexual orientation is generally based on sexual attraction; sexual attraction can result in different sexual behaviours and sexual identities.
- Sexual attraction: refers to sexual interest in another person. Sexual attraction is having sexual feelings towards someone. A person may be attracted to one specific gender or sex, to more than one gender or sex, or to no one.
- Sexual behaviour: how a person behaves sexually. It is whether they have sexual partners of another gender or sex, the same gender or sex, or refrain from sexual behaviour.
- Sexual identity: how a person thinks of their own sexuality and which terms they identify with. Sexual identity terms include lesbian, gay, straight, asexual, takatāpui, bisexual, or pansexual.
Takatāpui: is a traditional Māori term that means ‘intimate companion of the same sex’. It has been reclaimed by some Māori to describe their diverse sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and sex characteristics (New Zealand Human Rights Commission, 2020).
Transgender: refers to a person whose gender is different from the sex recorded at their birth. The criterion used to classify a person as cisgender or transgender is self-defined. It is the status the person provides to the transgender status question or what is derived based on the responses provided to the gender and sex questions. It is important to note that this does not ascribe an identity to someone (that is, it should not be assumed that people identify with any of these terms). Instead, this classification sorts responses into categories to compare groups. Being classified into a cisgender or transgender category reflects the relationship between a person’s sex at birth and their gender, and whether these differ or align. It is not a statement about the terms that someone identifies with.

As this data comes from a sample survey (meaning only some of the population is surveyed, unlike a Census where all of the population is surveyed), there is likely to be a difference between the estimated value from the HES sample and the ‘true’ population value. The size of this difference is estimated and termed ‘sample error’. In this report, sample errors are presented as 95 percent confidence intervals. That is, Stats NZ are 95 percent confident that the ‘true’ population value lies in the range of the estimate +/- the sample error.
Sample error increases as the sample size decreases; therefore, as the LGBT+ population is a subset of the total population, the sample error on these estimates can be large. Sample error increases further when the LGBT+ population is further broken down by other characteristics. When comparing the LBGT+ population and the non-LGBT+ population, the sample error on the estimates should be taken into account.

Download the excel file "LGBT+ population of Aotearoa: Year ended June 2021".

Stats NZ introduced questions on sexual identity and gender to HES for the year ended June 2021, to help provide a more accurate and inclusive picture of New Zealanders that, amongst other dimensions, would reflect the diversity of genders and sexual identities in Aotearoa.

The data comes from HES – a survey of about 16,000 responding households (including more than 32,000 people aged 18 and over).