Percentage of gay americans
What’s Behind the Rapid Go up in LGBTQ Identity?
Newsletter Rally 6, 2025
Daniel A. Cox, Jae Grace, Avery Shields
Since 2012, Gallup has tracked the size of America’s LGBTQ population. For the first few years, there was not much news to report. The percentage of Americans who identified as gay, lesbian, double attraction, transgender, or queer was relatively low and inching up slowly year over year. Recently, the pace has sped up. Gallup’s newest report recorded the single largest one-year grow in LGBTQ identity. In 2024, nearly one in ten (9.3 percent) Americans identify as LGBTQ.
The stable rise in LGBTQ self among the public is worth noting, but it’s not the most essential part of the story. Most of the uptick in LGBTQ identity over the past decade is due to a dramatic increase among young adults, particularly young women. In less than a decade, the percentage of youthful women who identify as LGBTQ has more than tripled.
The gender gap in LGBTQ identity has exploded as well. A decade earlier, young women were only slightly more likely to identify as LGBTQ than young men. For instance, in 2015, 10 percent of young women and six percent of young men identified as
What percentage of the US population is LGBTQ? New facts 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 statistics. 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 queer and queer residents than others.
Earlier this year, a poll from Gallup launch a slightly higher percentage of U.S. adults are Diverse. 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
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 information for these estimates. Pooling multiple years of information 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 reside in the Northeast (2.6 million).
The percent of adults who identify as LGBT
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 identify 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, gay, bisexual person, transgender or something other than heterosexual has increased to a new sky-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 information it collects on all U.S. telephone surveys. Respondents can also volunteer any other sexual orientation or gender identity they prefer. In addition to the 7.1% of U.S. adults who consider themselves to be an LGBT identity, 86.3% say they are straight or heterosexual, and 6.6% perform not offer an opinion. The results are based on aggregated 2021 facts, encompassing interviews with more than 12,000 U.S. adults.
Line graph. Americans' Self-Identification as Lesbian, Gay, Attracted to both genders, Transgender or Something Other than Heterosexual.
LGBT Populations
This route shows the estimated unprocessed number of LGBT people (ages 13+) living in each state. The statistics 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 facts, 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 grown-up 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 chart shows the estimated percentage of each state's individual (ages 18+) population that identifies as lesbian, same-sex attracted, 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