Iceland is the least homophobic country in the OECD

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a white background.

Iceland is officially the least homophobic country in the list of members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

A study carried out by the group found that Iceland was the most accepting of the LGBT+ community compared to 34 other countries in the list including the UK and the US.

Reykjavik Pride
Reykjavik Pride (Photo by imavgjoe/Instagram)

Following Iceland in acceptance is Sweden.

The Netherlands is third on the list, with Norway, Denmark and Switzerland following coming in at fourth, fifth and sixth.

The report found that attitudes to LGBT people are significantly more positive in OECD countries than in countries which are not members of the organization.

Overall, attitudes towards the LGBT community are increasing in positivity as Iceland jumped from sixth in the list in 2000 to the top of the list.

It also found that as countries make an increased effort to create equality for the LGBT+ community in legislation, social attitudes towards the community became more positive.

More general findings from the study found that men are less accepting of LGBT+ people than women.

Older generations and those with less education are also, as a rule, less accepting.

Iceland is the least homophobic country in the OECD


The report also drew parallels between the acceptance of the LGBT+ community and immigrants.

The higher the acceptance of immigrants, the higher the acceptance of LGBT+ people and gender recognition.

The UK, the US and Ireland were amongst 19 countries that fell below the OECD average of acceptance of LGBT+ people.

Turkey came in at last place in the list.