By Maria Ortiz
Mar 13, 2024, 10:51 PM EDT
A Gallup poll released Wednesday shows that 7.6% of American adults now identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or other sexual orientations in addition to heterosexual.
If current trends continue, the US LGBTQ+ population could be 10% within three decades, Gallup said in announcing the 2023 survey results.
The current figure is up from 5.6% four years ago and 3.5% in 2012, the first year Gallup measured sexual orientation and transgender identity.
Gallup said the percentage of American adults who consider themselves part of the LGBTQ+ community has more than doubled since the organization first asked about sexual orientation and transgender identity in 2012.
Not surprisingly, American young adults have driven this rise in gay identification.
Gallup said that approximately 1 in 10 millennials identify as LGBTQ+, while 1 in 5 Gen Z adults identify this way.
Survey details
Bisexual adults are the largest segment of the US LGBTQ+ population: 4.4% of US adults and 57.3% of LGBTQ+ adults identify as bisexual.
Women (8.5%) are almost twice as likely as men (4.7%) to identify as LGBTQ+.
Gay and lesbian are the next most common identities, each representing just over 1% of American adults and approximately 1 in 6 LGBTQ+ adults.
Just under 1% of American adults and about 1 in 8 LGBTQ+ adults They are transgender.
The least identified LGBTQ+ identities are the pansexual and the asexual, mentioned by less than 2% of LGBTQ+ adults surveyed.
How these surveys are carried out
These results are based on aggregated data from 2023 Gallup telephone polls, covering interviews with more than 12,000 Americans ages 18 and older.
In each survey, Gallup asks respondents whether they identify as straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or something else.
Overall, 85.6% said they were straight or straight, 7.6% identified with one or more LGBTQ+ groups, and 6.8% declined to answer.
Gallup said that each younger generation has nearly twice as likely as the previous generation to identify as LGBTQ+. And he indicated that only 2% of baby boomers identify as homosexual.
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