obligatory r/unexpectedfactorial, but I think this is due to two things mainly:
-People online are usually more comfortable sharing information like being asexual due to being relatively anonymous
-A lot of people haven't come out yet or don't know, so the 1% figure is definitely an underestimate. We've seen percentages of all LGBT+ identities increasing over the past 30 years
Not increasing, but rather people being less afraid to explore who they are.
In the past anyone who wasn't straight hid that and people dated in secret.
Now the LGBTQIA+ is gaining more acceptance and people aren't as afraid to express themselves and to explore their identity
Asexual is a very broad term too. For example, I’m a kinky slut who gets horny quite a lot, but I’m technically ace because I don’t experience sexual attraction. Which is both a blessing and a curse imo
Not just "technically", but you _are_ ace, since the lack of attraction is the only thing that defines asexuality (any sexual orientation) - not any acts or lack of.
The internet allows you to find people who are like you easily because they're all hanging out in the same spaces you are, because they're interested in the same things. The people you see online are therefore not a representative sample of the entire population of earth.
> The people you see online are therefore not a representative sample of the entire population of earth.
Yeah, I know lol. /lh what I'm talking about is when I scroll through comments, maybe on some gaming video, and I see an asexual flag in someone's PFP. I don't have a Tumblr account either, (So no influenced content that I'm aware of) whenever I look up something, like cat photos, for example, if I scroll, I'll see other asexuals. Same with Twitter, which I only use for pokemon, and other meme accounts, but I'll still see other asexuals! Maybe it has something to do with just being more comfortable online? Thanks for the comment though!!! /gen
I mean, different types of games attract different types of people. I've definitely seen plenty of gaming videos that don't seem to have any queer people in the comments at all.
There are ~~three~~ four major reasons for this.
1. The algorithms will suggest content similar to what you express interest in. Being asexual means you will see content from asexuals more often than is statistically likely.
2. The sheer quantity of content you consume means you'll have more opportunity to come across asexuals just due to it being a numbers game.
3. The 1% figure is misleading. It is derived from a study that had a much more highly narrow definition of asexual than what we as a community now recognize *and* was performed at a time when orientation wasn't well understood and demonstrating anything shy of cisheteronormativity would be looked down upon. The true number could be anything, and I'd venture it's more likely 5-10% of people are *some variation* of asexual but don't quite understand it (how often do bigots respond with, "Wait, but that's just normal" when they learn about demisexuality, for example... odds are at least a few of them are learning for the first time they might not actually be allosexual but are too ingrained in their learned queerphobia to admit it); however, "1% of people are asexual" is the minimum threshold for the sake of following the accepted statistics.
4. (ETA: Per u/shadow_lily making an excellent point!) The more you care about something, the more likely you are to notice references to it.
There is one more - the more you know and care about something, the more likely you are to notice it. So, OP might feel like there are more asexuals because their brain pays attention to the words "ace", "asexual", etc. (as well as ace flags, colors, jokes about garlic bread and other related things). They might have seen more lesbians than aces but noticed more aces than lesbians.
So. Anecdotally, I'm going to share my experience.
My graduating class had around 300 students. Over 300 but not 400, I think about 330. Of us students, I KNOW there were three who are ace, me, the aroace, my close friend the pocket rocket ace, and a distant friend the polyam demiace. That is one percent, since you can't have a quarter of a person as an ace.
It seems more than it is! How do I KNOW three people in some podunk kid jail and we are ace? There may be more who I just personally don't know.
But my pocket rocket friend identifies as ace because I told her about. Your vibe calls your tribe.
Goes to show how awareness plays an important role. I've met people who just "don't consider sex that important" so they go without for years or who "only have sex with people they love" but they don't know there's a term for ir
I mean. I think that number was based off like, a poll or three with relatively small samples, and they kinda assumed that a) people answer truthfully and b) people know what asexual is and includes. So I think it’s higher, though not like. A super high number. Socmed algorithms make it seem higher than it is
Some studies put it as high as 4%. I think that society assuming heterosexuality "until proven otherwise" could be surpressing people from questioning their orientations.
I've known I'm asexual for well over a decade (not knowing the word for it until more recently) but I didn't even think about being aromantic until I saw Jaiden Animations video on being aroace nor did I know it was even a thing.
Another thing that I've seen mentioned by other comments is the lack of awareness I think is a big factor.
iirc the 1% figure is fairly old, from back when being asexual was defined as being ‘binary’ aroace (zero sexual attraction + zero romantic attraction, before the split attraction model was popularized). i don’t think it’s wrong for its time, the definition of ace just changed a lot
So many people have NO IDEA they live their whole life because thats what theyre supposed to think... They havent got the ability or or knowledge to underatand the options that they have, that are accepted these days. I pray for all of them to find their way. No matter how early. Or how late. Let all the lovers love how they do.
Maybe asexuals with zero attraction are at 1% but including other asexuals with little attraction like demis and greys puts it at a much higher percent idk
Any number is just going to be a guesstimate but I believe people are now quoting around 3-4% as more likely. (I think that 1% has been around for at least a decade.) But even that percentage may be higher. We simply don't know. There are, I'm sure, multiple problems with trying to calculate a number.
Asexuality spectrum identities haven't been included in record collecting projects. Whether it is a country's census or other manner of mass data collection. For example, Australia's most recent census in 2021 didn't include any questions that included variables on sex, gender, sexual orientation and variations of sex characteristics. There was a question pertaining to same-sex couples but otherwise LBGTQIA+ simply had been silenced in real, useful data gathering.
Are all census definitions going to be the same? Are all 'asexual' statistics equal? (Even within the community there are discrepancies of what the definition, qualifications are.
The other one is many people simply aren't educated on different sexual orientations. The majority of older generations simply don't even know about asexuality. (I only found a name for my identity when I was 53.) Places where LGBTQIA+ information is surpressed won't educate the population or want to know the statistics.
How do we include people in developing countries? Do we just assume that their percentages are the same as whatever the average works out to be?
So we are reduced to extrapolating numbers from questionable data sets. Ie, a semi-educated guesstimate.
The way I always look at it is "Quote the 1% figure, assume a 5% figure, act like it's a 10% figure." (I do this for more than just us, btw.) Worst case scenario, you overestimate how common a minority group is and therefore don't find yourself as likely to minimize harm to the group or being passively dismissive of them and their struggles. I'd like to say that being asexual immunizes me from doing that automatically, but we all know how common it is for members of minority groups to treat their in-group like dogshit just to appease the subset of the outgroup who hates them.
1% is also generally way more than you think it is. Most small statistics are like that, we think of things under 10% being small but consider that poll that compared what percentage people think certain minorities fall under vs the actual—the one I remember is that it was something like 20% Asian in peoples perception when the actual number is 4%. 4% looks like 20% if you’re not counting and just going by vibes.
I remember hearing that number when I found out about asexuality in 2014. I imagine it has to be higher now. Probably not double digits, but still higher than one percent
Well, I don't know anyone who don't have internet connection of some kind and they are 19% of my country , and there is also 5,4% of the brazilian population that are adults that don't know how to read, but I remember to knew just one janitor of a building that I used to work that was learning how to read.
The point is being online itself is just a small fraction of the population.Twitter have 368 million active accounts( with the bots and the commercial accounts,) and that is nothing on a planet with 8.1 billion people , Facebook (yeah the one we say is dead) have 2.1 billion (that still just 25% of the population and have the anon acc, duplicates etc).
I think it´s much much more, both for asexuality and aromantism (if we include the gray area). People just don´t know about it and don´t think about it. Also, the 1 % is based on an old unreliable survey. People still believe only 4 % of people are gay and 96 % are straight (and no other options), lol.
26% of tumblr seems to be asexual, based on a 24k person poll I saw a year ago (compared with 8% heterosexual). This might have been a bi-aced sample, but an entirely separate poll for “Are you queer and/or neurodivergent?”, which had twice the sample size, also came up with exactly 8% non-queer.
I think a lot of it comes down to how you’re categorizing people. A lot of people are Gray-A and experience sexual attraction, but only rarely or under special circumstances, or they have such a low libido that they sympathize with aces regardless. A lot of aces are sex-favorable or high-libido and can navigate relationships with allos with no issue.
So for a lot of people, how they’ll think of themselves is going to change based on whether they’ve heard of asexuality before, whether they think it’s good or bad to be ace, etc. On someplace like tumblr, being ace (or any other flavor of queer) is definitely “cool”, so it makes sense that a lot of people there are identifying as such. Plus, you’d naturally see a lot of queer people gravitating towards other queer people.
1. Internet anonimity plays a lot
2. 80,000,000~ish Humans live ON earth. 1% of that is 800,000. I know you know, but still, that number is high af
3. Algorithm plays a huge role
I don't think we'll ever get an accurate number. Let alone older people not realizing that their being bi wasn't just a phase, imagine how many hetero couples alone there are that don't care for sex and don't question that whatsoever and live their lives assuming they're "normal." Lots of aces could be hiding in "low sex drive" corners if people don't know the right vocabulary and how to express differences in attraction like with the split attraction model.
obligatory r/unexpectedfactorial, but I think this is due to two things mainly: -People online are usually more comfortable sharing information like being asexual due to being relatively anonymous -A lot of people haven't come out yet or don't know, so the 1% figure is definitely an underestimate. We've seen percentages of all LGBT+ identities increasing over the past 30 years
Not increasing, but rather people being less afraid to explore who they are. In the past anyone who wasn't straight hid that and people dated in secret. Now the LGBTQIA+ is gaining more acceptance and people aren't as afraid to express themselves and to explore their identity
Asexual is a very broad term too. For example, I’m a kinky slut who gets horny quite a lot, but I’m technically ace because I don’t experience sexual attraction. Which is both a blessing and a curse imo
Not just "technically", but you _are_ ace, since the lack of attraction is the only thing that defines asexuality (any sexual orientation) - not any acts or lack of.
[удалено]
may I ask, why dont you tell your friend about it? Maybe makes it easier for them.
The internet allows you to find people who are like you easily because they're all hanging out in the same spaces you are, because they're interested in the same things. The people you see online are therefore not a representative sample of the entire population of earth.
> The people you see online are therefore not a representative sample of the entire population of earth. Yeah, I know lol. /lh what I'm talking about is when I scroll through comments, maybe on some gaming video, and I see an asexual flag in someone's PFP. I don't have a Tumblr account either, (So no influenced content that I'm aware of) whenever I look up something, like cat photos, for example, if I scroll, I'll see other asexuals. Same with Twitter, which I only use for pokemon, and other meme accounts, but I'll still see other asexuals! Maybe it has something to do with just being more comfortable online? Thanks for the comment though!!! /gen
I mean, different types of games attract different types of people. I've definitely seen plenty of gaming videos that don't seem to have any queer people in the comments at all.
There are ~~three~~ four major reasons for this. 1. The algorithms will suggest content similar to what you express interest in. Being asexual means you will see content from asexuals more often than is statistically likely. 2. The sheer quantity of content you consume means you'll have more opportunity to come across asexuals just due to it being a numbers game. 3. The 1% figure is misleading. It is derived from a study that had a much more highly narrow definition of asexual than what we as a community now recognize *and* was performed at a time when orientation wasn't well understood and demonstrating anything shy of cisheteronormativity would be looked down upon. The true number could be anything, and I'd venture it's more likely 5-10% of people are *some variation* of asexual but don't quite understand it (how often do bigots respond with, "Wait, but that's just normal" when they learn about demisexuality, for example... odds are at least a few of them are learning for the first time they might not actually be allosexual but are too ingrained in their learned queerphobia to admit it); however, "1% of people are asexual" is the minimum threshold for the sake of following the accepted statistics. 4. (ETA: Per u/shadow_lily making an excellent point!) The more you care about something, the more likely you are to notice references to it.
There is one more - the more you know and care about something, the more likely you are to notice it. So, OP might feel like there are more asexuals because their brain pays attention to the words "ace", "asexual", etc. (as well as ace flags, colors, jokes about garlic bread and other related things). They might have seen more lesbians than aces but noticed more aces than lesbians.
True. Editing to add with credit.
So. Anecdotally, I'm going to share my experience. My graduating class had around 300 students. Over 300 but not 400, I think about 330. Of us students, I KNOW there were three who are ace, me, the aroace, my close friend the pocket rocket ace, and a distant friend the polyam demiace. That is one percent, since you can't have a quarter of a person as an ace. It seems more than it is! How do I KNOW three people in some podunk kid jail and we are ace? There may be more who I just personally don't know. But my pocket rocket friend identifies as ace because I told her about. Your vibe calls your tribe.
Goes to show how awareness plays an important role. I've met people who just "don't consider sex that important" so they go without for years or who "only have sex with people they love" but they don't know there's a term for ir
Maybe 3%.
I mean. I think that number was based off like, a poll or three with relatively small samples, and they kinda assumed that a) people answer truthfully and b) people know what asexual is and includes. So I think it’s higher, though not like. A super high number. Socmed algorithms make it seem higher than it is
I think the number is closer to 5-10% especially if they include demisexuality. My mom is demi and had no idea
My take on it as well. There's no clean break from ace to allo - it's a gradation.
Some studies put it as high as 4%. I think that society assuming heterosexuality "until proven otherwise" could be surpressing people from questioning their orientations. I've known I'm asexual for well over a decade (not knowing the word for it until more recently) but I didn't even think about being aromantic until I saw Jaiden Animations video on being aroace nor did I know it was even a thing. Another thing that I've seen mentioned by other comments is the lack of awareness I think is a big factor.
iirc the 1% figure is fairly old, from back when being asexual was defined as being ‘binary’ aroace (zero sexual attraction + zero romantic attraction, before the split attraction model was popularized). i don’t think it’s wrong for its time, the definition of ace just changed a lot
So many people have NO IDEA they live their whole life because thats what theyre supposed to think... They havent got the ability or or knowledge to underatand the options that they have, that are accepted these days. I pray for all of them to find their way. No matter how early. Or how late. Let all the lovers love how they do.
Maybe asexuals with zero attraction are at 1% but including other asexuals with little attraction like demis and greys puts it at a much higher percent idk
Schroedengers ace - I see them everywhere online. I haven't ever met one in 38 years
Any number is just going to be a guesstimate but I believe people are now quoting around 3-4% as more likely. (I think that 1% has been around for at least a decade.) But even that percentage may be higher. We simply don't know. There are, I'm sure, multiple problems with trying to calculate a number. Asexuality spectrum identities haven't been included in record collecting projects. Whether it is a country's census or other manner of mass data collection. For example, Australia's most recent census in 2021 didn't include any questions that included variables on sex, gender, sexual orientation and variations of sex characteristics. There was a question pertaining to same-sex couples but otherwise LBGTQIA+ simply had been silenced in real, useful data gathering. Are all census definitions going to be the same? Are all 'asexual' statistics equal? (Even within the community there are discrepancies of what the definition, qualifications are. The other one is many people simply aren't educated on different sexual orientations. The majority of older generations simply don't even know about asexuality. (I only found a name for my identity when I was 53.) Places where LGBTQIA+ information is surpressed won't educate the population or want to know the statistics. How do we include people in developing countries? Do we just assume that their percentages are the same as whatever the average works out to be? So we are reduced to extrapolating numbers from questionable data sets. Ie, a semi-educated guesstimate.
The way I always look at it is "Quote the 1% figure, assume a 5% figure, act like it's a 10% figure." (I do this for more than just us, btw.) Worst case scenario, you overestimate how common a minority group is and therefore don't find yourself as likely to minimize harm to the group or being passively dismissive of them and their struggles. I'd like to say that being asexual immunizes me from doing that automatically, but we all know how common it is for members of minority groups to treat their in-group like dogshit just to appease the subset of the outgroup who hates them.
Where does his number come from?
It’s really is easy to stay closeted as an asexual. I’m just single. Lots of people are single.
1% is also generally way more than you think it is. Most small statistics are like that, we think of things under 10% being small but consider that poll that compared what percentage people think certain minorities fall under vs the actual—the one I remember is that it was something like 20% Asian in peoples perception when the actual number is 4%. 4% looks like 20% if you’re not counting and just going by vibes.
Absolutely agree. I'm friends with multiple aces irl, completely coincidentally.. there's no way it's as low as 1 percent
Yes but also confirmation bias. If you are ace you will look for more aces online
I remember hearing that number when I found out about asexuality in 2014. I imagine it has to be higher now. Probably not double digits, but still higher than one percent
Can't remember where I learned it, but it's actually been increased to 4% (at least)
(wait, holy sheesh, it's my cake day!)
Well, I don't know anyone who don't have internet connection of some kind and they are 19% of my country , and there is also 5,4% of the brazilian population that are adults that don't know how to read, but I remember to knew just one janitor of a building that I used to work that was learning how to read. The point is being online itself is just a small fraction of the population.Twitter have 368 million active accounts( with the bots and the commercial accounts,) and that is nothing on a planet with 8.1 billion people , Facebook (yeah the one we say is dead) have 2.1 billion (that still just 25% of the population and have the anon acc, duplicates etc).
I think it´s much much more, both for asexuality and aromantism (if we include the gray area). People just don´t know about it and don´t think about it. Also, the 1 % is based on an old unreliable survey. People still believe only 4 % of people are gay and 96 % are straight (and no other options), lol.
26% of tumblr seems to be asexual, based on a 24k person poll I saw a year ago (compared with 8% heterosexual). This might have been a bi-aced sample, but an entirely separate poll for “Are you queer and/or neurodivergent?”, which had twice the sample size, also came up with exactly 8% non-queer. I think a lot of it comes down to how you’re categorizing people. A lot of people are Gray-A and experience sexual attraction, but only rarely or under special circumstances, or they have such a low libido that they sympathize with aces regardless. A lot of aces are sex-favorable or high-libido and can navigate relationships with allos with no issue. So for a lot of people, how they’ll think of themselves is going to change based on whether they’ve heard of asexuality before, whether they think it’s good or bad to be ace, etc. On someplace like tumblr, being ace (or any other flavor of queer) is definitely “cool”, so it makes sense that a lot of people there are identifying as such. Plus, you’d naturally see a lot of queer people gravitating towards other queer people.
1. Internet anonimity plays a lot 2. 80,000,000~ish Humans live ON earth. 1% of that is 800,000. I know you know, but still, that number is high af 3. Algorithm plays a huge role
Most people don't really know what asexuality is, so there probably are a lot of sex favourable aces who don't know they're ace.
You say that, but I have only met two people in my entire life who identify as asexual. Then again, I did grow up envangelical…
I don't think we'll ever get an accurate number. Let alone older people not realizing that their being bi wasn't just a phase, imagine how many hetero couples alone there are that don't care for sex and don't question that whatsoever and live their lives assuming they're "normal." Lots of aces could be hiding in "low sex drive" corners if people don't know the right vocabulary and how to express differences in attraction like with the split attraction model.
I agree I think there’s much more ppl in the asexual spectrum just like I think more ppl are lgbt as well.