A billion people now live with marriage equality

A billion people, around one seventh of the world’s population, now live in jurisdictions with full marriage equality.

The figure, equal to 13.8% of humanity, is based on a new analysis by Melbourne-based LGBT rights activist, Tony Pitman.

“The turning point came a few weeks ago when Colombia and then several Mexican states all achieved marriage equality within a few days. That pushed us up over a billion for the first time in history,” revealed Pitman.

“When you think that the first ever same-sex marriages took place in the Netherlands in 2001, that means we’ve gone from zero to a billion in just 15 years. That’s an extraordinary rate of social progress. We’re witnessing an historic shift on a truly global scale,” he said.

The USA, with 328 million inhabitants, is the most populous country in the world with full marriage equality, followed by Brazil with 206 million citizens.

June and July are traditionally times for LGBT Pride celebrations in the northern hemisphere. Tragically, this year, festivities have been marred by the horrific events in Orlando.

“Hopefully the news that we’ve reached this historic milestone can bring some comfort and encouragement to a worldwide community still in shock and mourning from Orlando,” commented Pitman.

He noted that his home country of Australia still does not yet rank among the nations with marriage equality.

“It’s terribly disappointing that Australians will never be able to say that we were among the first billion people in the world to achieve marriage equality. That’s a sad historical fact now and an indictment of our spineless, dithering politicians,” said Pitman.

Below is an infographic depicting the regions and countries that have full marriage equality and their populations.