One BILLION people now live with equal marriage

New research has revealed that one billion people now live in a place that has marriage equality.

An analysis by Melbourne-based LGBT activist, Tony Pitman, has revealed that the billion mark was crossed for the first time last month, when a number of Mexican states joined Columbia and legalised same-sex marriage.

One BILLION people now live with equal marriage

The Netherlands was the first country to legalise equal marriage in 2001, with a number of European countries following over the next 15 years.

Latin American countries have been the most recent to join the tally.

In other news:

The United States is the country with the largest population in the count, totalling around 328 million. This is followed by Brazil on 206 million and France with around 67 million.

Although Mexico is included, only a number of states there have legalised same-sex marriage with large parts of the country still going without.

This is also the same for the UK, where Northern Ireland doesn’t have equal marriage.

With the world’s population estimated to be around 7.33 billion, the total makes up around 14% of the Earth’s population.

It’s also believed that the count could rise further before the end of the year, if countries such as Australia bring in equal marriage.

Europe is the continent with the most countries to have same-sex marriage, followed by South America on five and North America on two. South Africa is the only country in Africa to have equal marriage.