Local Area Estimates and Geographical Patterns of Australia’s Sexual Minority Population

Wilson, Tom; Temple, Jeromey

doi:10.1007/s12061-021-09416-0

Published: 02 September 2021

Local Area Estimates and Geographical Patterns of Australia’s Sexual Minority Population

Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

The need for subnational population statistics by sexual identity is being increasingly recognised for a variety of service delivery, analysis, and policy purposes. However, such statistics are rarely produced by statistical offices or researchers. The aims of the paper are to describe a new method for calculating subnational estimates of the population aged 18 and over by sexual identity, and apply it to produce mid-2016 estimates for local areas in Australia. Census counts of persons in same-sex and opposite-sex relationships, survey data by sexual identity and partnership status, and official Estimated Resident Population data are used. The method first involved preparing census-like counts of populations by sexual identity, and then scaling them using iterative proportional fitting to be consistent with local area Estimated Resident Populations and national estimates by sexual identity. We find that the geography of Australia’s sexual minority population is highly concentrated, with the highest proportions of the population identifying as a sexual minority in the inner areas of Australia’s largest cities. However, almost all parts of the county are home to at least a small sexual minority population, even in remote areas. While our estimates remain approximate due to data limitations, they provide a reasonable set of statistics on local area populations by sexual identity.

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Data Availability

Mid-2016 population estimates by sexual identity are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13263872.v1.

Code Availability

The Excel workbook used to undertake the calculations is available on request from the corresponding author.

Notes

https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/visualization/lgbt-stats/

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Acknowledgements

This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the DSS or the Melbourne Institute.

Funding

Funding support from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (Project Number CE1101029) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, 207 Bouverie St, Melbourne, Vic, 3010, Australia
Tom Wilson & Jeromey Temple

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Tom Wilson
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Jeromey Temple
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Correspondence to Tom Wilson.

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Ethics approval for this project was granted by the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health Human Ethics Advisory Group (ID 2056346.1).

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Wilson, T., Temple, J. Local Area Estimates and Geographical Patterns of Australia’s Sexual Minority Population. Appl. Spatial Analysis (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-021-09416-0

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Received: 06 December 2020
Accepted: 02 July 2021
Published: 02 September 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-021-09416-0

Keywords

Sexual minority
Population estimates
Local area
Geography
Australia