Culture

EU poll finds a surprising number of young people want to ‘try’ gay sex

Apr 14 2016
Written by Nick Duffy

Hundreds of thousands of young Europeans have taken part in a EU-wide poll – and it’s found a lot more are open to gay sex than you might have expected.

The Generation What poll was recently launched by 15 European broadcasters in collaboration with the organisers of Eurovision, the European Broadcasting Union.

It looks at the views of young people under the age of 34 across the EU, with more than 250,000 people taking part so far and answering questions about their views, opinions and personal lives.

As well as some of the more wild statistics – apparently 7 percent of young people have smoked a joint with their parents – the poll provides a surprisingly detailed view of sexuality across Europe.

The poll found that among the younger generation, sexual diversity is widely accepted across national boundaries – despite a growing divide on LGBT rights

Have a play with some of the interactive data below!

14 percent of young people have tried gay sex. One in five haven’t… but want to try.

Young people are fine with seeing gays kissing

And more than half of young people have friends of a different sexual orientation

They’re open about relationships or sex with more than one person

And they mostly don’t see the value in religious doctrine

And check out some of the weirder questions below

The 15 broadcasters taking part are BNN (Netherlands), BR (Germany), Czech Radio (Czech Republic), Czech Television (Czech Republic), ERT (Greece), France Télévisions (France), ORF (Austria), RAI (Italy), RTBF (Belgium), RTE (Ireland), RTVE (Spain), S4C (Wales), SWR (Germany), VRT (Belgium) and ZDF (Germany) – but you can take the poll from across Europe.

EBU Media Director Jean Philip De Tender said: “The EBU is immensely excited to be launching Generation What Europe.

“This unique project will not only give us a snapshot of how Europe’s young people think in 2016 but also provide Members with innovative content and an understanding of their young audiences.”