OTTAWA, June 16 (UPI) -- Just 1 percent of Canadians who responded to Statistics Canada's nationwide 2003 Canadian Community Health Survey identified themselves as gay.
The survey, released in Ottawa Tuesday, examined the sexual orientation of Canadians for the first time, questioning more than 83,000 men and women between the ages of 18 and 59. Results also showed that 0.7 percent of respondents identified themselves as bisexual, The Globe and Mail reported.
The gay community has contended for years that gays actually comprise up to 10 percent of the total population, citing research performed in the 1940s and 1950s by Alfred Kinsey.
Statscan Senior Analyst Vincent Dale said the results may have varied depending on the questioning.
"We know from other surveys that if we had asked, 'Are your partners of the same sex or the opposite sex?' the number probably would have been higher," Dale said.
Canada's total population was 31.7 million as of January 2004.
