Nearly 8% of American adults now identify as LGBTQ — poll
LGBTQ identification in the U.S. continues to climb, with 7.6% of adults surveyed in 2023 self-identifying as nonheterosexual, according to new data released Wednesday by Gallup.
That figure is up from 7.2% in 2022, 5.6% in 2020 and 3.5% in 2012, when Gallup began measuring the data. The number indicates an overall trend of increasing LGBTQ identification in the U.S. — especially among younger generations — and signals an even higher percentage in the coming years.
“The generational differences and trends point to higher rates of LGBTQ+ identification, nationally, in the future,” researchers said in a news release. “If current trends continue, it is likely that the proportion of LGBTQ+ identifiers will exceed 10% of U.S. adults at some point within the next three decades.”
Findings from Gallup’s latest survey were based on aggregated data from phone interviews conducted in 2023 with more than 12,000 U.S. adults, ages 18 and up.
Participants were asked if they identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or any other identity, such as queer, pansexual or asexual.
In 2023, 85.6% of participants said they identified as “straight or heterosexual,” 7.6% identified with one or more LGBTQ groups, and 6.8% declined to respond.
As researchers have noted in previous surveys, younger adults are far more likely to identify as LGBTQ than older generations.
Among those who were between 18 and 26 in 2023, or Generation Z adults, more than one in five (22.3%) identified as LGBTQ, while for the millennial generation, between 27 and 42, nearly one in 10 (9.8%) said the same.
The gap becomes more pronounced as generations get older, with less than 1% of adults born before 1946 identifying as something other than heterosexual.
“Overall, each younger generation is about twice as likely as the generation that preceded it to identify as LGBTQ+,” researchers said.
The survey also found that LGBTQ identification was far more common among women. About 8.5% of women identified as LGBTQ, compared with 4.7% of men.
That’s especially true for the three youngest generations: Nearly three in 10 (28.5%) Gen Z women identified as LGBTQ, compared with 10.6% of Gen Z men.