What percentsge of people are gay
LGBT Populations
This map shows the estimated raw number of LGBT people (ages 13+) living in each mention. The data 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 mirror estimates of the LGBTQ adult population living in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Estimates of the LGBTQ individual population in the five inhabited U.S. territories are not available, and so cannot be reflected here.
This map shows the estimated percentage of each state's adult (ages 18+) population that identifies as lesbian, queer, bisexual, or trans person, based on a 2018 analysis 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
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 detecting as lesbian, gay, bisexual person, transgender or something other than heterosexual in 2024. This represents an raise 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
Estimates and characteristics of LGBTI+ populations in Australia
Adult LGBT Population in the United States
This report provides estimates of the number and percent of the U.S. grown-up 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 facts for these estimates. Pooling multiple years of data provides more stable estimates—particularly at the express level.
Combining 2020-2021 BRFSS data, we estimate that 5.5% of U.S. adults recognize 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. reside 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 exist in the Northeast (2.6 million).
The percent of adults who identify as LGBT
What’s Behind the Rapid Climb in LGBTQ Identity?
Newsletter Pride 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, fluid, 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 raise in LGBTQ identity. In 2024, nearly one in ten (9.3 percent) Americans identify as LGBTQ.
The stable rise in LGBTQ culture among the public is worth noting, but it’s not the most vital 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 adolescent 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