Lgbtq people in america

What percentage of the US population is LGBTQ? Unused data shows which states have the most

New statistics estimates the greatest number of lesbian, gay, double attraction and transgender U.S. adults live in the South, confirming findings from recent years.

Across the country, researchers estimate more than 5% of U.S. adults are LGBTQ+, matching prior Diverse population data. Young people ages 18-24 are much more likely to determine as LGBTQ+, according to the report from the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles.

The report, based on Centers for Disease Rule and Prevention data, set up that in 2020 and 2021, there were nearly 14 million LGBTQ+ adults in the U.S. − with some states having noticeably higher percentages of gay and queer residents than others.

Earlier this year, a poll from Gallup found a slightly higher percentage of U.S. adults are LGBTQ+. 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 Power, 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 not many years, there was not much news to report. The percentage of Americans who identified as gay, lesbian, pansexual, transgender, or lgbtq+ was relatively quiet 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 grow in LGBTQ persona among the common 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 expand among young adults, particularly young women. In less than a decade, the percentage of juvenile women who determine as LGBTQ has more than tripled.

The gender gap in LGBTQ identity has exploded as successfully. A decade earlier, young women were only slightly more likely to distinguish as LGBTQ than young men. For instance, in 2015, 10 percent of young women and six percent of young men identified as

Under Fire Series: The War on LGBTQ People in America

In "Under Fire," a new series of reports, MAP connects the dots on the varied ways that LGBTQ people are under siege from a targeted and coordinated campaign to undermine equality and ultimately erase LGBTQ people from common life.

Click below to scan and download each describe in the series.

  • "Under Fire: The War on LGBTQ People in America" — Report #1, PDFDownload

  • Press Emit, Report #1Read more

  • "Erasing LGBTQ People from Schools and Public Life"  — Announce #2, PDFDownload

  • Press Release, State #2Read more

  • "Erecting Systemic and Structural Barriers to Create Change Harder"  — Notify #3, PDFDownload the report

  • Press Release, Report #3Read more

  • "Enshrining Inequality for LGBTQ People"  — Report #4, PDFDownload

  • Press Release, Report #4Read more

  • "Banning Medical Care and Legal Recognition for Transgender People"  — Report #5, PDFDownload the Report

  • Press Release, Announce #5Read more

  • "Silencing Supporters of LGBTQ People"  — Notify #6, PDFDownload

  • Press Release, Rep

    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 identifying as lesbian, gay, pansexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual in 2024. This represents an expand of more than a percentage show 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 penetrate 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 -- recognize 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 possess 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

    lgbtq people in america

    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 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 reside in the Northeast (2.6 million).

    The percent of adults who identify as LGBT