High Levels of Same-Sex Experiences in the Netherlands: Prevalences of Same-Sex Experiences in Historical and International Perspective

Figures & data

TABLE 1 Demographic Characteristics of the Original Sample, the Weighted Sample, and the Dutch Population in Percentages

	Original sample	Weighted sample	General Dutch population
Gender
Male	50.0	50.6	50.3
Female	50.0	49.4	49.7
Age, in years
19–34	42.7	32.4	30.0
35–54	44.8	44.7	45.4
55–69	12.5	22.9	24.6
Educational level
Low	34.3	30.7	30.6
Medium	37.1	42.7	42.9
High	28.6	26.6	26.5
Ethnicity
Native/Western	89.8	92.9	90.0
Turkish/ Moroccan	3.8	2.6	3.8
Surinamese/ Antillean	3.4	2.4	2.8
Other non-Western	3.0	2.0	3.3
Degree of urbanization
Low	22.4	33.6	33.5
Medium	49.6	47.9	47.9
High	28.0	18.5	18.6

TABLE 2 Study and Operationalization Details of Same-Sex Attraction, Same-Sex Sex Ever, Same-Sex Sex Recently, and Self-Identification in (International) Population Studies

References	Country	Study details	Same-sex concepts in the study	Operationalization of the included same-sex measures
Bakker & Vanwesenbeeck (2006); Kuyper (2006)	The Netherlands	Population sample, digital questionnaire, data collected 2005–2006, N = 4147, age 18–69	Same-sex sex ever	Ever sex with same-sex
			Same-sex sex recently	Sex with same-sex in preceding 6 months
			Same-sex attraction	Feels sexually attracted to same-sex
			Same-sex identity	Calls oneself lesbian/gay/bi
Sandfort & Van Zessen (1991)	The Netherlands	Population sample, face-to-face interviews, data collected 1989, N = 1001, age 18–50	Same-sex sex ever	Ever had sex with same-sex
			Same-sex sex recently	Sex with same-sex in preceding year
			Same-sex attraction	Still feelings of attraction to same-sex
			Same-sex identity	Calls oneself lesbian/gay/bi in preceding year
Janssens, Elling & van Kalmthoudt (2003)	The Netherlands	Population sample, digital questionnaire, data collected 2002, N = 24.000, age 18+	Same-sex identity	Call oneself homosexual/bisexual
De Graaf, Sandfort & Ten Have (2006)	The Netherlands	Population sample, face-to-face-interview, data collected 1996, N = 5998, age 18–64	Same-sex sex recently	Sex with same-sex preceding year
Johnson et al. (2001)	Britain	Population sample, face-to-face CAI personal and CASI, data collected 1999/2001, N = 11161, age 16–44	Same-sex sex ever	Any form of genital contact with same-sex ever
			Same-sexsex recently	Sex with same-sex in past 5 years
Bajos et al. (2007)	France	Population sample, telephone interviews, data collected 2005–2006, N = 12364, age 18–69	Same-sex sex ever	Ever had sex with same-sex partner
			Same-sex sex recently	Sex with same-sex in the preceding year
Grulich, De Visser, Smith, Rissel & Richters (2003); Smith, Rissel, Richters, Grulich & De Visser (2003)	Australia	Population sample, computer-assisted telephone interviews, data collected in 2001/2002, N = 19307, age 16–59	Same-sex sex ever	Sexual experience with same-sex
			Same-sex attraction	Felt sexually attracted to same-sex (at least once)
			Same-sex identity	Consider oneself lesbian/bi
Mosher, Chandra & Jones (2005)	United States	Household based sample, audio computer assisted self interviewing, data collected 2002/2003, N = 12571, age 15–44	Same-sex sex ever	Ever sex with same-sex ^a
			Same-sex sex recently	Last 12 months sex with same-sex
			Same-sex attraction	Think of oneself as lesbian/bi/gay
			Same-sex identity	Sexually attracted to same-sex
Canadian Community Health Survey (2003)	Canada	Population sample, computer-assisted personal interviewing, data collected 2003, N = 135573, age 18–59	Same-sex identity	Consider oneself homosexual/bisexual
^aFor men, sex was defined as anal or oral sex. For women, sex was not defined.

TABLE 3 Prevalences of Same-Sex Experiences in Various Countries and Odd Ratios for Comparison with the Current Situation in the Netherlands

	Women			Men
	%	OR	p	%	OR	p
Same-sex attraction
Netherlands: current situation	18.2			13.4
Netherlands: 1989	3.0	7.19	∗∗∗	6.0	2.42	∗∗∗
Australia	12.8	1.58	∗∗∗	6.8	2.12	∗∗∗
United States	13.4	1.44	∗∗∗	7.1	2.02	∗∗∗
Same-sex sex ever
Netherlands: current situation	12.3			12.7
Netherlands: 1989	4.0	3.37	∗∗∗	12.0	1.07	ns
Britain	4.9	2.72	∗∗∗	5.4	2.55	∗∗∗
France	4.0	3.37	∗∗∗	4.1	3.40	∗∗∗
Australia	8.6	1.49	∗∗∗	5.9	2.32	∗∗∗
United States	11.0	1.13	ns	6.0	2.28	∗∗∗
Same-sex sex recently
Netherlands: current situation	5.5			7.9
Netherlands: 1989	1.0	5.76	∗∗∗	6.2	1.30	ns
Netherlands: 1996	1.4	4.10	∗∗∗	2.8	2.98	∗∗∗
Britain	2.6	2.18	∗∗∗	2.6	3.21	∗∗∗
France	1.0	5.76	∗∗∗	1.6	5.28	∗∗∗
United States	4.4	1.26	∗	2.9	2.87	∗∗∗
Same-sex self-identification
Netherlands: current situation	5.9			7.1
Netherlands: 1989	0.9	6.90	∗∗∗	4.0	1.85	ns
Netherlands: 2002	2.8	2.18	∗∗∗	4.5	1.74	∗∗∗
Australia	2.2	2.79	∗∗∗	2.5	2.98	∗∗∗
United States	4.1	1.47	∗∗∗	4.1	1.79	∗∗∗
Canada	1.5	4.12	∗∗∗	1.8	4.17	∗∗∗
∗/∗∗∗ = significant at .05/.001 level.

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