What percentage of the usa is gay 2018

what percentage of the usa is gay 2018

LGBT Identification in U.S. Ticks Up to 7.1%

Story Highlights

  • LGBT identification up from 5.6% in 2020
  • One in five Gen Z adults recognize as LGBT
  • Bisexual identification is most common

Learn more in Gallup’s 2024 LGBTQ+ update.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The percentage of U.S. adults who self-identify as lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual has increased to a modern high of 7.1%, which is double the percentage from 2012, when Gallup first measured it.

Gallup asks Americans whether they personally identify as straight or heterosexual, lesbian, gay, multi-attracted , or transgender as part of the demographic knowledge it collects on all U.S. telephone surveys. Respondents can also volunteer any other sexual orientation or gender identity they choose. In addition to the 7.1% of U.S. adults who consider themselves to be an LGBT culture, 86.3% say they are straight or heterosexual, and 6.6% do not suggest an opinion. The results are based on aggregated 2021 data, encompassing interviews with more than 12,000 U.S. adults.

Line graph. Americans' Self-Identification as Lesbian, Queer , Bisexual, Transgender or Something Other than Heterosexual.

LGBTQ+ Identification in U.S. Rises to 9.3%

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup’s latest update on LGBTQ+ identification finds 9.3% of U.S. adults recognizing as lesbian, gay, attracted to both genders, transgender or something other than heterosexual in 2024. This represents an multiply of more than a percentage point versus the prior estimate, from 2023. Longer term, the figure has nearly doubled since 2020 and is up from 3.5% in 2012, when Gallup first measured it.

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LGBTQ+ identification is increasing as younger generations of Americans enter adulthood and are much more likely than older generations to say they are something other than heterosexual. More than one in five Gen Z adults -- those born between 1997 and 2006, who were between the ages of 18 and 27 in 2024 -- identify as LGBTQ+. Each older generation of adults, from millennials to the Silent Generation, has successively lower rates of identification, down to 1.8% among the oldest Americans, those born before 1946.

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LGBTQ+ identification rates among young people have also increased, from an average 18.8% of Gen Z adults in 2020 through 2022 to an average of 22.7% over the past two years.

Gallup has

Views on LGBTQ Rights in All 50 States: Findings from PRRI’s 2023 American Values Atlas 

Executive Summary

Throughout 2023, PRRI interviewed more than 22,000 adults as part of its American Values Atlas, allowing for the ability to provide a detailed profile of the demographic, religious, and political characteristics of LGBTQ Americans. As in years past, this investigation measures Americans’ attitudes on LGBTQ rights across all 50 states on three key policies: nondiscrimination protections, religiously based service refusals, and same-sex marriage. This year’s report also includes new study of the intersection between Christian nationalist views and LGBTQ attitudes in each state.

LGBTQ Americans skew younger, more Democratic, and less religious than other Americans.

  • More than one in five young Americans (18-29 years) determine as LGBTQ (22%). One in ten people ages 30-49 (10%), 6% of people between 50 and 64 years, and 3% of people 65 years or older determine as LGBTQ. Twenty-four percent of Gen Z Americans (aged 18 to 25) identify as LGBTQ.
  • A plurality of LGBTQ Americans are Democrats (46%); nearly six in ten LGBTQ Americans consider themselves liberal politically (58%)

    The ‘Global Closet’ is Huge—Vast Majority of World’s Lesbian, Queer , Bisexual Population Mask Orientation, YSPH Learn Finds

    The vast majority of the world’s sexual minority population — an estimated 83 percent of those who detect as lesbian, queer or bisexual — keep their orientation hidden from all or most of the people in their lives, according to a novel study by the Yale School of Public Health that could have major implications for global public health.

    Concealing one’s sexual orientation can lead to significant mental and physical health issues, increased healthcare costs and a dampening of the public public presence necessary for progressing equal rights, said John Pachankis, Ph.D., associate professor at the Yale Educational facility of Public Health. He co-authored the study with Richard Bränström, an associate professor at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and investigate affiliate at Yale.

    Published in the journal PLOS ONE, the study is believed to be the first seek to quantify the size of the “global closet” in order to gauge its public health impact.

    “Given rapidly increasing acceptance of sexual minorities in some countries, it might be easy to assume that most sexual minorities are

    LGBT Populations

    This guide shows the estimated crude number of LGBT people (ages 13+) living in each state. The facts 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 communication, 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 mature person population living in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Estimates of the LGBTQ mature person population in the five inhabited U.S. territories are not available, and so cannot be reflected here.

    This route shows the estimated percentage of each state's mature person (ages 18+) population that identifies as lesbian, lgbtq+, bisexual, or transgender, based on a 2018 investigation 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