FALSE: The claim that 80 per cent of South African men are gay is inaccurate
This post on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that 80 per cent of South African men are gay is FALSE.
“Yes we have women but because we are real men that want a lot of women unlike South Africa men that has 80% of there men is gay (sic),” the post reads.
However, a Google search on the issue revealed that various sources estimate the percentage of people identifying as gay in South Africa to be less than 10 per cent.
An article published on 3 July 2024 by the United Nations South Africa website indicates that about 310,000 people identify as gay in South Africa. The article cites the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 2022 data (page 6).
The population of South Africa is estimated to be 64.8 million as of 29 July 2025.
The World Population Review reported that the total LGBTQ+ community in South Africa is 4 per cent as of 2024. The report used the LGBT+ PRIDE 2024 — Ipsos Global Advisor Survey report (page 52) as a source.
Additionally, the Progressive Prudes report mentioned on page 3 that 530,000 adult men and women, of all population groups, both rural and urban dwelling, and across age groups, self-identify as either homosexual, bisexual, or gender non-conforming in South Africa.
The latest South African census report, released in 2022, states that the country’s population is 62 million. However, the LGBTQ+ community was excluded from the 2022 census.
The United Nations South Africa report shows that South Africa decriminalised and legalised same-sex marriage in 2006, becoming the first country in Africa to do so.
PesaCheck has examined a post on X claiming that 80 per cent of South African men are gay and found it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Kiya Ali and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Mary Mutisya and chief copy editor Stephen Ndegwa.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Doreen Wainainah.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.