Gallup: 7.6% of US adults identify as LGBTQ+

(Graphic by the Hlliburton Foundation)

Researchers from the Gallup polling organization released the results of the latest Gallup Poll that LGBTQ+ identification among adults continues to grow; with 7.6 percent of the population in the U.S. now identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or some other sexual orientation besides heterosexual. 

The current figure is up from 5.6 percent four years ago and 3.5 percent in 2012, Gallup’s first year of measuring sexual orientation and trans identity.

According to Gallup Polling:

These results are based on aggregated data from 2023 Gallup telephone surveys, encompassing interviews with more than 12,000 Americans aged 18 and older. In each survey, Gallup asks respondents whether they identify as heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something else. Overall, 85.6 percent say they are straight or heterosexual, 7.6 percent identify with one or more LGBTQ+ groups, and 6.8 percent decline to respond.

Bisexual adults make up the largest proportion of the LGBTQ+ population — 4.4 percent of U.S. adults and 57.3 percent of LGBTQ+ adults say they are bisexual. Gay and lesbian are the next-most-common identities, each representing slightly over 1 percent of U.S. adults and roughly one in six LGBTQ+ adults. Slightly less than 1 percent of U.S. adults and about one in eight LGBTQ+ adults are transgender. The most commonly volunteered LGBTQ+ identities are pansexual and asexual, mentioned by less than 2 percent of LGBTQ+ adults each.

LGBTQ identification higher among Gen Z

Increases in LGBTQ+ identification in recent years have occurred as members of Generation Z and the millennial generation have entered adulthood. Adults in these younger generations are far more likely than those in older generations to identify as LGBTQ+.

Researchers reported that overall, each younger generation is about twice as likely as the generation that preceded it to identify as LGBTQ+. More than one in five Gen Z adults, ranging in age from 18-26 in 2023, identify as LGBTQ+, as do nearly one in 10 millennials (aged 27 to 42.) The percentage drops to less than 5 percent of Generation X, 2 percent of baby boomers and 1 percent of the Silent Generation.

Read the full polling results here.

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