Can I find out how many LGBT youth there are in my metro area?
June 10, 2016 4:18 PM Subscribe
Any ideas on where I can find a reasonably accurate estimate of the LGBT Youth population in the St. Louis metropolitan area? I've tried several things (listed inside) but keep coming up empty.
Extensive Googling brings up plenty of lists of local gay resources/advocacy groups or at best an estimate of the adult gay population in St. Louis City. Google Scholar and PubMed came up with nothing even close. I have an e-mail out to (from what I can tell is) the largest local LGBT Youth advocacy group seeing if they have any leads, but I haven't heard back and would like to come to a conclusion on this by end of day Monday at the latest. If it comes down to it, I'd be okay with StL City/County numbers, but ideally I'd like to get the whole metro area (which is, depending on who's defining it, ~16 counties in MO and IL).
Any ideas, or is this the kind of statistic that is too fraught/difficult to feasibly find?
Extensive Googling brings up plenty of lists of local gay resources/advocacy groups or at best an estimate of the adult gay population in St. Louis City. Google Scholar and PubMed came up with nothing even close. I have an e-mail out to (from what I can tell is) the largest local LGBT Youth advocacy group seeing if they have any leads, but I haven't heard back and would like to come to a conclusion on this by end of day Monday at the latest. If it comes down to it, I'd be okay with StL City/County numbers, but ideally I'd like to get the whole metro area (which is, depending on who's defining it, ~16 counties in MO and IL).
Any ideas, or is this the kind of statistic that is too fraught/difficult to feasibly find?
Response by poster: Heh, I'd be lying if I said that didn't cross my mind. But this is building the background for a grant application, so it'd be much better to have a citation as opposed to an extrapolation.
posted by Ufez Jones at 4:51 PM on June 10, 2016
posted by Ufez Jones at 4:51 PM on June 10, 2016
Have you looked into these folks' work: http://www.glsen.org/chapters/kansascity/school_climate
They at least might cite something you could dig into.
posted by thewestinggame at 5:52 PM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
They at least might cite something you could dig into.
posted by thewestinggame at 5:52 PM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
You may get some numbers by contacting homeless shelters for LGBT youth, they will atleast have a number of high risk youth they serve per year.
But actually using an estimation for your proposal wouldn't be bad sociologically speaking. Add in the census doesnt track that data, it's probobly going to be the best estimate you are going to get.
Just explain how you came up with the population numbers and percentages. Use a few models for an estimation range if you feel like it.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:44 PM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
But actually using an estimation for your proposal wouldn't be bad sociologically speaking. Add in the census doesnt track that data, it's probobly going to be the best estimate you are going to get.
Just explain how you came up with the population numbers and percentages. Use a few models for an estimation range if you feel like it.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:44 PM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
Williams Institute at UCLA should have it if it exists
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 7:44 PM on June 10, 2016
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 7:44 PM on June 10, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
St. Louis Metro Area has about 2.8M people.
Across the US, the percentage of the population under 21 is 27.1%.
A recent Gallup survey put the LGBT population at 3.8%.
So:
Population in St. Louis Metro Area under age 21: 2.8M x 27.1% = 758,800
LGBT subset: 758,800 x 3.8% = 28,834
You can adjust any parts of the model if you don't agree with the numbers used (maybe you think the LGBT population is larger, or the St. Louis Metro Area population under 21 isn't representative of the US as a whole, etc.).
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 4:43 PM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]