Wellington is the city with the highest proportion of Rainbow community members. Photo / Georgina Campbell

Auckland revealed as city with least number of LGBTIQ+, Wellington has the most

Author: Raphael Franks,
Publish Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2024, 1:26pm

Auckland has been revealed as the city with the lowest proportion of people identifying as part of the Rainbow or LGBTIQ+ community in New Zealand.

Statistics New Zealand released the second tranche of Census 2023 data this morning. This was the first census to include questions about gender, variations of sex characteristics and sexual identity.

It has revealed Wellington as the city with the highest proportion of people identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex or queer, with 11.3% of people saying they belonged to the Rainbow community.

But Auckland, even with its historic red-light district of Karangahape Rd, was beaten by Palmerston North, Hamilton, Christchurch and Dunedin.

In Auckland, 4.9% of people identified as LGBTQ+. The Waitematā Local Board area, covering Ponsonby, Central Auckland, Freemans Bay, Herne Bay, Cox’s Bay, Western Springs and Grey Lynn, had the highest proportion of LGBTIQ+ adults in the city, at 12%.

Wellington is the city with the highest proportion of Rainbow community members. Photo / Georgina Campbell

Dunedin had the second highest proportion of its population identifying as part of the Rainbow community, at 7.3%. Christchurch followed at 6%, then Palmerston North at 5.8%, while Hamilton was still ahead of Auckland at 5.6%.

Across the country, one in 20 adults were LGBTIQ+, with 4.9% of those 15 years old or above identifying themselves as such in the census.

This worked out to 47,631 people who identified as homosexual (gay or lesbian), 78,3000 as bisexual and 19,026 people whose sexual identities were not classified in the census.

Nationally, 0.7% of people said they were transgender, with 5013 identifying as transgender men, 5736 as transgender women, and 15,348 as transgender people of another gender.

Auckland has the lowest proportion of LGBTIQ+ people in New Zealand. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Also, 0.4% of people said they knew they were born with a variation of sex characteristics.

People who identified as another gender other than male or female were younger than the general population on average. The average age of those falling outside a gender binary was 24.8.

Tabby Besley, managing director of support and education charity InsideOUT, told the Herald she was not surprised at Wellington’s place in the results, saying it had long been seen as a safe and accepting space for the LGBTIQ+ community.

“Wellington has a long history of being a supportive city for Rainbow communities, where people from other parts of the country often move to to have an easier life where they are accepted,” Besley said.

LGBTQ+ charity InsideOUT’s managing director Tabby Besley

She said self-reporting of sexuality, orientation and identities in the census could be lower than the actual figure, though. She noted low participation rates, particularly for youngsters, and said many may feel uncomfortable or unable to list their true identity.

“A lot of the time it’s their parents filing out the census on their behalf. They may not necessarily feel safe to put that if they’re not out with people, maybe if they’re doing it with flatmates, or someone else who could have access to it at home,” Besley said.

“So there’s lots of potential barriers, it’s definitely important we don’t take it as a fully accurate picture.”

But Besley said it was “good to be counted” in the census: “This is something our communities have been advocating for for decades. It [having data] definitely gives us a much better idea than we’ve ever had in the past.”

Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.

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