Statistics

[Dangerous_Clarinet]

I have heard that asexuals make up 1% of the world's population. Usually, I hear this as a method of erasure, i.e. "Only 1% of people are asexual, so you probably aren't one."

I've seen some aces quote this statistic as truth and others attempt to repudiate it.

Does anyone with more knowledge/experience of the asexual community know where this statistic came from, and whether or not it is valid?

[dissolved]

It was based on a study done in the UK, and as far as I remember sexuality wasn't the main aspect, so it's likely to be unreliable.

Also saying that 1% of people are asexual therefore you probably aren't one isn't erasure as much as it is common sense.

[nanogretchen4]

It's based on a study by Anthony F. Bogeart in 2004, and it sounds like a rough estimate to me. This whole line of research is pretty new. It's like the 10% estimate for how many people are gay. That was almost certainly a significant overestimate, unless you include bisexuals near the hetero end of the Kinsey scale who probably don't identify as queer. Honestly, so far there is no evidence to suggest that the 1% estimate for asexuals is too low, but if asexuals start coming out and actively looking for each other and building a more visible community, we'll probably get more accurate information. A lot depends on how strictly asexuality is defined. Right now the label is a bit trendy among certain demographics. Including gray sexuals and inexperienced teens will result in larger numbers than including only adults who have never, ever desired partnered sex. An attraction based definition also results in larger numbers due to total confusion about what sexual attraction is, and a tendency to define it as something most sexuals don't experience.

[WinterWanderer]

The study that is usually cited for giving the 1% estimate was a study based on a survey that was done of almost 19,000 UK citizens in 1994. Just about the only good thing about it (as a source on asexuality) is that it had such a large sample size. Beyond that, it's not very helpful imo.

I don't think that basing the estimate on this study is valid for two reasons: 1) the survey it's based on was done over 20 years ago, and 2) As @dissolved said, it wasn't a sexual study. It merely included a question about whether the person is sexually attracted to other people. Asexuality wasn't a concept then - so it's likely that people who could have qualified as ace answered "heterosexual" or "homosexual," because that's how they felt romantically, and they just assumed that that must be how they felt sexually, too. People didn't (and still don't) think of romantic and sexual attraction as being different.

Other studies have been done since then, which are also cited in the Wikipedia article I linked above. ^

I don't think we can have a good estimate of how many aces there are until a more current census is done. And this survey would likely need to not only give asexuality as an option, but also define what asexuality is, for clarity purposes.

[tali.lynn]

I thought that there was a study done more recently in 2011 or so that had around 3,000 participants - maybe I am thinking of that study that was done OF asexual individuals for demographics within the community. Either way, the 1% estimate is rough, but I don't find it inaccurate in practice. I know of two ace-spectrum individuals in real life (who I met independently of asexual groups) and from dating sites such as HER I've met a few ace-spec people, I'd say fairly close to 1/100. I don't think the self-identified ace population is either considerably less or more than 1%, but that is just my experience, out of highly liberal social pool.

However as was pointed out, many people don't know what asexuality is at this point, or simply identify as their romantic orientation, which could indicate that there is a higher percentage of asexual people than we estimate.

[Kimmie.]

apparently some time in the future i don´t know when i Sweden, they are gonna send out a survey to the population to map out our sexlife (how often, with who and how and so on. It will be interesting to see how many thay will say that they are asexual.

One thing that annoys me when i hear about this on the radio is that they say that having sex less then 6 times a month is unhealthy regardless of your orientation. And as a adult it is apparently strange to have sex with less 10 different partners i your life time.

Rant over.

It will be fun to fill it out when and if i get it beacuse they usually send out surveys like this to Random people in different age groups and places. But beacuse this is such a importent and big survey they maybe will do it at a bigger scale.

[Telecaster68]

Bogaert quoted research at one point (on an interview that's on YouTube somewhere, I don't have time to dig around now and find it), that says different surveys have put it at somewhere between 0.8% and 8%, which is a factor of 10 difference and is basically researchers shrugging their shoulders and saying 'who knows, but a small minority'.

[Tarfeather]

It depends on the definition. I suspect that the kind of asexual who really has no concept of sexuality in any form, clocks at about 1% of the population. AVEN's definition of asexuality is far more inclusive, where anyone who for some reason or another never wants sex, can be considered asexual. It then becomes an umbrella term for various types of people: Fetishists, people with physical problems that makes sex impossible, people with traumatic events in their past that make sex impossible, etc. etc. For this larger group, Telecaster's 8% figure seems more realistic.