What is the percentage of gay people in the usa
LGBT Populations
This chart shows the estimated unprocessed number of LGBT people (ages 13+) living in each state. The numbers are based on a Williams Institute analysis of surveys conducted by Gallup Polling (2012-2017) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; 2015 and 2017 YRBS). For more data, see the methodology in the Williams analysis.
500K - 1.4M+
200K - 499K
50K - 199K
8K - 49K
Data are not currently available about LGBT people living in the U.S. territories.
Percent of Adult LGBTQ Population Covered by Laws
*Note: These percentages reflect estimates of the LGBTQ individual population living in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Estimates of the LGBTQ senior population in the five inhabited U.S. territories are not available, and so cannot be reflected here.
This guide shows the estimated percentage of each state's individual (ages 18+) population that identifies as lesbian, queer, bisexual, or transgender, based on a 2018 study of Gallup data by The Williams Institute.
5.0% and greater
4.0%-4.9%
3.0%-3.9%
1.5%-2.9%
Percent of Adult LGBTQ Population Covered by Laws
*Note: These p
What Percentage of Americans Are LGBTQ+?
Editor's Note: This article was revised on Rally 18, 2024, to indicate Gallup's latest estimate of Americans’ identification as LGBTQ+.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup finds 7.6% of U.S. adults identifying as lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, or something other than straight or heterosexual. The percentage has more than doubled since Gallup first measured Gay identification in 2012.
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Overall, 85.6% of U.S. adults speak they are straight or heterosexual, 7.6% identify with one or more Gay groups, and 6.8% decline to respond.
U.S. LGBTQ+ identification breaks down in the following manner:
- Bisexual adults build up the largest proportion of the LGBTQ+ population (57.3%).
- Gay (18.1%) and queer woman (15.1%) are the next-most-common identities.
- About one in eight LGBTQ+ Americans are trans person (11.8%).
- Smaller proportions of LGTBQ+ adults volunteer another self, such as queer, pansexual or asexual.
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LGBTQ+ Identification is most common among youthful adults.
LGBTQ+ identification is much more common among younger adults than older adults. Also, 8.5% of mature person women and 4.7% of adult
What percentage of the US population is LGBTQ? New statistics shows which states have the most
New data estimates the greatest number of lesbian, gay, pansexual and transgender U.S. adults live in the South, confirming findings from recent years.
Across the region, researchers estimate more than 5% of U.S. adults are LGBTQ+, matching prior LGBTQ+ population facts. Young people ages 18-24 are much more likely to identify as Gay, according to the report from the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles.
The report, based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, found that in 2020 and 2021, there were nearly 14 million LGBTQ+ adults in the U.S. − with some states having noticeably higher percentages of same-sex attracted and queer residents than others.
Earlier this year, a poll from Gallup launch a slightly higher percentage of U.S. adults are Gay. Overall, multiple polls show that the adult LGBTQ population has been steadily increasing for years.
"Look at the numbers, more people are coming out younger and people are coming out in places where LGBTQ folks have been less out and visible," Cathy Renna, a spokesperson for the National LGBTQ Task Force, told USA
What’s Behind the Rapid Rise in LGBTQ Identity?
Newsletter March 6, 2025
Daniel A. Cox, Jae Grace, Avery Shields
Since 2012, Gallup has tracked the size of America’s LGBTQ population. For the first several years, there was not much news to report. The percentage of Americans who identified as gay, lesbian, pansexual, transgender, or homosexual was relatively short and inching up slowly year over year. Recently, the pace has sped up. Gallup’s newest report recorded the single largest one-year increase in LGBTQ identity. In 2024, nearly one in ten (9.3 percent) Americans identify as LGBTQ.
The steady go up in LGBTQ persona among the general is worth noting, but it’s not the most significant part of the story. Most of the uptick in LGBTQ identity over the past decade is due to a dramatic grow among young adults, particularly young women. In less than a decade, the percentage of new women who recognize as LGBTQ has more than tripled.
The gender gap in LGBTQ identity has exploded as adv. A decade earlier, young women were only slightly more likely to name as LGBTQ than young men. For instance, in 2015, 10 percent of young women and six percent of young men identified as
Adult LGBT Population in the United States
This report provides estimates of the number and percent of the U.S. adult population that identifies as LGBT, overall, as well as by age. Estimates of LGBT adults at the national, state, and regional levels are included. We rely on BRFSS 2020-2021 statistics for these estimates. Pooling multiple years of facts provides more stable estimates—particularly at the state level.
Combining 2020-2021 BRFSS data, we estimate that 5.5% of U.S. adults identify as LGBT. Further, we estimate that there are almost 13.9 million (13,942,200) LGBT adults in the U.S.
Regions and States
LGBT people reside in all regions of the U.S. (Table 2 and Figure 2). Consistent with the overall population in the United States,more LGBT adults live in the South than in any other region. More than half (57.0%) of LGBT people in the U.S. live in the Midwest (21.1%) and South (35.9%), including 2.9 million in the Midwest and 5.0 million in the South. About one-quarter (24.5%) of LGBT adults reside in the West, approximately 3.4 million people. Less than one in five (18.5%) LGBT adults survive in the Northeast (2.6 million).
The percent of adults who identify as LGBT