How Other Countries View Homosexuality
How Other Countries View Homosexuality
Many countries have their own view when it comes to the acceptance of homosexuality. People’s views on the matter have evolved over time, but today there are still divided opinions across the globe. We will discuss the acceptance rate of homosexuality globally and go into detail to explain some of the reasoning behind the percentage rate findings.
Are families like the one pictured accepted?
According to the Pew Research Center, their studies have shown a steady increase in the acceptance of homosexuality worldwide since the early 2000s. Many people have differing perspectives on this matter depending on their age, the role of religion in their lives, and level of education. These factors make sense because each individual has their own world view, which is largely shaped by those 3 aspects in a person’s life. Even political views play a part in someone’s acceptance of homosexuality. For example, in the United States, findings have shown that people with left leaning or Democratic political views are more accepting of homosexuality than those on the right with Republican political views. The percentage findings among these groups of people were 85% and 58% respectively. Not surprisingly, a majority of LGBT+ adults in the U.S. also consider themselves a part of the Democratic political party. Factoring that into account makes a lot of sense with the total percentages.
Walking proud, being happy
Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia have extremely low acceptance rates compared to the Americas and Western Europe. The top 3 countries (out of the 35 countries surveyed by Pew Research Center) with the lowest acceptance rates were Nigeria, Tunisia, and Indonesia. Additionally, Nigerians who were affiliated with any religion had a less than 10% acceptance rate of homosexuality. Religion is a major part of life among African and Middle Eastern countries, so their religious beliefs strongly influence their opinion of homosexuality. When it comes to the importance of religion among individuals, there are many European countries that rank very low on the global scale including Sweden, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. It is fascinating that these 3 countries also have some of the highest acceptance rates of homosexuality which we will discuss next.
love is love
Recent studies have shown that countries who are thriving economically are very accepting of homosexuality. Europe has the top 3 countries with the highest acceptance rate: Sweden (94%), Netherlands (92%), and Spain (89%). The next 3 on the list were France, Germany, and the United Kingdom tying with a rate of 86%. Canada and Australia also have rates above 80%. Interestingly enough, the United States had an overall acceptance rating of 72% in 2019, even though they are arguably the richest country in the world. Up until the early 2000s there was about an equal 50/50 split opinion of homosexuality among Americans. However, since the legislation passed in 2015 to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states, there has been a steadily rising acceptance rate above 60%.
March for what you believe in
The level of education one has also impacts the acceptance rate of homosexuality. Greece for instance had over 70% acceptance rate among those with postsecondary education compared to just over 40% acceptance rate among those who obtained only secondary education. People in Brazil had similar findings among those with higher education. Their percentages were 80% and 55% respectively. It makes sense that a more educated person would accept the idea of homosexuality because they generally have a broader perspective on the world. People who have gone through postsecondary education have also exercised their critical thinking skills more than someone with only a secondary education due to their higher education.
What type of country do you live in?
Notably, two countries stood out in Pew’s surveys. Mexico and Japan had close to a 70% acceptance rate in 2019 compared to almost 50% when the surveys first started in 2002. Another intriguing finding was that South Koreans seem to have very split opinions across the board. Only 37% of men in South Korea agreed that homosexuality should be accepted by society in contrast to 51% of women surveyed in the same country. Comparing the opinions of young adults to adults over 50 was also very split in South Korea. Young adults had a 79% acceptance whereas only 23% of the older generation were accepting of homosexuality. This is an amazingly large divide in a relatively small country.
We hope you found these facts about how different countries view homosexuality insightful. Overall it the trend is that the world is continuing to accept the idea of homosexuality in society. Western European countries so far are the most accepting of homosexuality, along with other well developed and thriving countries in the world.