{"chart":{"title":"People living in countries in which same-sex sexual acts are legal","subtitle":"Law that sexual acts between consenting same-sex adults in private are not criminalized. Some countries only criminalize sexual acts between men.","note":"Countries are considered even before they were independent.","citation":"Mignot (2026); Population based on various sources (2024)","originalChartUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/people-living-in-countries-in-which-same-sex-sexual-acts-are-legal","selection":["World"]},"columns":{"Population in countries with missing data":{"titleShort":"No data on legal status","titleLong":"No data on legal status","descriptionShort":"Population in countries with missing data about their homosexuality status.","descriptionKey":"The legal status shown for each country reflects the situation as of June 2026.","descriptionProcessing":"From the original table, we constructed a new dataset with data for all countries between 1760 and 2025.\n\nFor countries where criminalization was implemented at different points in time across their regions, we considered the earliest year of the change as the year of criminalization. This is the case for the United States (1610-1948).\n\nConversely, for countries where _decriminalization_ was implemented at different points in time across their regions, we considered the latest year of the change as the year of decriminalization. This is the case for Australia (1975-1997), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1998-2001), United Kingdom (1967-1982), and United States (1962-2003).\n\nWe consider the year of the last decriminalization of homosexuality in Germany to be 1969, the year it was decriminalized in West Germany. East Germany did it in 1968.\n\nWe modified the homosexuality status for Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan before 1832 to \"Legal\" to reflect what it is mentioned on page 8 of the original paper (_[the Russian Empire] have not criminalized these practices since at least the 18th century_).","shortUnit":"","unit":"people","timespan":"1760-2025","type":"Integer","owidVariableId":1270851,"shortName":"status_missing_pop","lastUpdated":"2026-06-15","nextUpdate":"2027-06-15","citationShort":"Mignot (2026); Population based on various sources (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data","citationLong":"Mignot (2026); Population based on various sources (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “No data on legal status – Mignot” [dataset]. Mignot, “Homosexuality criminalization data from Mignot”; Various sources, “Population” [original data].","fullMetadata":"https://api.ourworldindata.org/v1/indicators/1270851.metadata.json"},"Population in countries where homosexuality is illegal":{"titleShort":"Homosexuality is illegal","titleLong":"Homosexuality is illegal","descriptionShort":"Population in countries where homosexuality is illegal. Homosexuality is defined in this case as consensual homosexual acts among adults in private.","descriptionKey":"The legal status shown for each country reflects the situation as of June 2026.","descriptionProcessing":"From the original table, we constructed a new dataset with data for all countries between 1760 and 2025.\n\nFor countries where criminalization was implemented at different points in time across their regions, we considered the earliest year of the change as the year of criminalization. This is the case for the United States (1610-1948).\n\nConversely, for countries where _decriminalization_ was implemented at different points in time across their regions, we considered the latest year of the change as the year of decriminalization. This is the case for Australia (1975-1997), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1998-2001), United Kingdom (1967-1982), and United States (1962-2003).\n\nWe consider the year of the last decriminalization of homosexuality in Germany to be 1969, the year it was decriminalized in West Germany. East Germany did it in 1968.\n\nWe modified the homosexuality status for Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan before 1832 to \"Legal\" to reflect what it is mentioned on page 8 of the original paper (_[the Russian Empire] have not criminalized these practices since at least the 18th century_).","shortUnit":"","unit":"people","timespan":"1760-2025","type":"Integer","owidVariableId":1270849,"shortName":"status_illegal_pop","lastUpdated":"2026-06-15","nextUpdate":"2027-06-15","citationShort":"Mignot (2026); Population based on various sources (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data","citationLong":"Mignot (2026); Population based on various sources (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Homosexuality is illegal – Mignot” [dataset]. Mignot, “Homosexuality criminalization data from Mignot”; Various sources, “Population” [original data].","fullMetadata":"https://api.ourworldindata.org/v1/indicators/1270849.metadata.json"},"Population in countries where homosexuality is legal":{"titleShort":"Homosexuality is legal","titleLong":"Homosexuality is legal","descriptionShort":"Population in countries where homosexuality is legal. Homosexuality is defined in this case as consensual homosexual acts among adults in private.","descriptionKey":"The legal status shown for each country reflects the situation as of June 2026.","descriptionProcessing":"From the original table, we constructed a new dataset with data for all countries between 1760 and 2025.\n\nFor countries where criminalization was implemented at different points in time across their regions, we considered the earliest year of the change as the year of criminalization. This is the case for the United States (1610-1948).\n\nConversely, for countries where _decriminalization_ was implemented at different points in time across their regions, we considered the latest year of the change as the year of decriminalization. This is the case for Australia (1975-1997), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1998-2001), United Kingdom (1967-1982), and United States (1962-2003).\n\nWe consider the year of the last decriminalization of homosexuality in Germany to be 1969, the year it was decriminalized in West Germany. East Germany did it in 1968.\n\nWe modified the homosexuality status for Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan before 1832 to \"Legal\" to reflect what it is mentioned on page 8 of the original paper (_[the Russian Empire] have not criminalized these practices since at least the 18th century_).","shortUnit":"","unit":"people","timespan":"1760-2025","type":"Integer","owidVariableId":1270847,"shortName":"status_legal_pop","lastUpdated":"2026-06-15","nextUpdate":"2027-06-15","citationShort":"Mignot (2026); Population based on various sources (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data","citationLong":"Mignot (2026); Population based on various sources (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Homosexuality is legal – Mignot” [dataset]. Mignot, “Homosexuality criminalization data from Mignot”; Various sources, “Population” [original data].","fullMetadata":"https://api.ourworldindata.org/v1/indicators/1270847.metadata.json"}},"dateDownloaded":"2026-10-31"}