An Examination of Poverty and Sexual Orientation in the UK

Is there a link between sexuality and poverty in the UK? If so, has this relationship changed over time? This review synthesizes British and international literature while adding top-line findings from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) to address these questions. It focuses not only on aggregate poverty rates but also on poverty drivers related to household structure, homelessness, health, education, employment and household wealth. The literature and top-line data analyses reveal gay and bisexual men experience greater material disadvantage compared heterosexual men while bisexual women experience greater material disadvantage compared to heterosexual women. Though the international literature sometimes finds material disadvantage for lesbians, the UKHLS data reveal little evidence that lesbians are materially disadvantaged relative to heterosexual women, although any British lesbian material disadvantage may be related to their status as women rather than their sexuality.