Discrimination against homoseuxal people in EU

Share of respondents in the European Union indicating that discrimination against lesbian, gay, or bisexual people is widespread in 2019, by member state

Characteristic	Very widespread	Fairly widespread	Don't know/no answer	Fairly rare	Very rare	Non-existent
France	26%	47%	6%	17%	4%	-
Portugal	27%	44%	8%	17%	4%	-
Greece	17%	53%	2%	24%	4%	-
Italy	20%	49%	4%	20%	6%	1%
Cyprus	24%	43%	4%	20%	9%	-
Netherlands	15%	45%	2%	27%	10%	1%
Belgium	13%	44%	-	33%	9%	1%
UK	16%	39%	7%	27%	10%	1%
Spain	13%	41%	2%	31%	12%	1%
Croatia	19%	33%	8%	20%	19%	1%
Lithuania	12%	38%	12%	21%	15%	2%
Poland	14%	35%	6%	24%	19%	2%
Ireland	12%	36%	6%	33%	11%	2%
Slovenia	11%	36%	4%	29%	17%	3%
Hungary	17%	29%	9%	24%	18%	3%
Austria	16%	30%	3%	32%	16%	3%
Romania	17%	28%	12%	23%	18%	2%
Finland	4%	38%	5%	43%	10%	-
Sweden	6%	36%	2%	44%	11%	1%
Denmark	8%	33%	5%	34%	19%	1%
Malta	8%	30%	8%	34%	18%	2%
Germany	7%	29%	6%	36%	20%	2%
Estonia	7%	27%	15%	23%	21%	7%
Czechia	10%	24%	4%	37%	23%	2%
Latvia	8%	22%	21%	18%	25%	6%
Bulgaria	9%	20%	20%	24%	21%	6%
Luxembourg	4%	23%	11%	38%	23%	1%
Slovakia	6%	19%	16%	25%	30%	4%

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Release date

June 2022

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Region

Europe, EU

Survey time period

May 9-21 2019

Number of respondents

27,438 respondents

Method of interview

Online survey

Citation formats

France, Portugal, and Greece are the three European countries with the greatest share of respondents indicating that homophobia is either fairly or very widespread in 2019. While this may indicate that these countries have a particular problem with homophobia, there is also a possibility that countries where people are more educated about LGBTQ issues, citizens are also more aware of discrimination.

For instance, some countries such as Bulgaria, Latvia, and Slovakia where most respondents say that discrimination against gay people is rare or non-existent also have higher shares of LGBT respondents indicating they have experienced discrimination in other surveys. It may be the case that in these countries, as LGBTQ issues are less widely discussed and education is less inclusive of the queer communities concerns, that the general public is less aware of homophobia.

On the other hand, countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK, where LGBTQ people report being able to have a greater level of openness about being gay in their daily lives, report more widespread homophobia. Paradoxically, it may be because of this widespread awareness and openness about LGBTQ issues that more respondents in the general public respond that homophobia is widespread.