Lengerer, Andrea (2025): Same-Sex Couples in the German Microcensus as of 2020. GESIS Papers 2025/03. Cologne: GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. https://doi.org/10.21241/ssoar.102224
A sudden rise in same-sex partnerships in Germany’s microcensus since 2020 – social change? No, a statistical illusion. In a recent report, Andrea Lengerer from GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences shows that methodological changes in how gender is recorded and processed are to blame. New response options like “diverse” or “no information” and the suspension of plausibility checks have led to overestimations of same-sex partnerships. Most affected: same-sex marriages, whose numbers have, statistically, tripled in some cases. Reliable analysis won’t be possible again until the 2024 microcensus.