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About 9.3 percent of U.S. adults in 2024 said that they identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or something other than heterosexual in a new report from Gallup.
The number of adults in the United States who identify as LGBTQ+ is higher than ever.
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About 9.3 percent of U.S. adults in 2024 said that they identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or something other than heterosexual in a new report from Gallup, up over one whole percentage point from the previous year. This is also nearly double the amount who identified as LGBTQ+ in 2020, and almost three times as many as those who did in 2012, when Gallup first began measuring it.
Gallup surveyed over 14,000 adults, with 85.7 percent identifying as straight, 5.2 percent identifying as bisexual, 2.0 percent as gay, 1.4 percent as lesbian, 1.3 percent as transgender, and under 1 percent as another LGBTQ+ identity. About five percent declined to answer.
Out of LGBTQ+ adults, 56 percent said they were bisexual, 21 percent said they were gay, 15 percent said lesbian, 14 percent said transgender, and 6 percent said something else. Gallup explains that "these figures total more than 100 percent because the survey allows respondents to report multiple LGBTQ+ identities."
The number of adults identifying as LGBTQ+ increased drastically as their ages decreased. Nearly one in four (23.1 percent) of Gen Z adults — those born between 1997 and 2006 who were between the ages of 18 and 27 in2024 — said they identify as LGBTQ+, compared to 14.2 percent of millennials, 5.1 percent of Gen X, 3.0 percent of baby boomers, and just 1.8 percent of the Silent Generation — those born 1945 or earlier.
Democrats and Independents were much more likely to identify as LGBTQ+ than Republicans, at 14 percent, 11 percent, and 3 percent, respectively. Even stronger differences were seen by ideology, with 21percent of liberals, compared with 8 percent of moderates and 3 percent of conservatives identifying as LGBTQ+.
Women were also more likely than men to say they identify as LGBTQ+, at 10 percent and 6 percent, respectively. The "gender gaps" were especially prevalent in younger generations, as 31 percentof Gen Z women versus 12 percent of Gen Z men, and 18 percent of millennial women versus 9 percent of millennial men, identify as LGBTQ+.
The report notes that the gaps between generations and genders are "largely due to more adults in their late teens, 20s and 30s — particularly young women — saying they are bisexual."
"In the 12 years that Gallup has been tracking LGBTQ+ identification, it has nearly tripled, as those becoming adults during that period have been far more likely than their elders to say they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender," the report states, concluding, "The rate of LGBTQ+ identification is likely to continue to grow, given the generational shifts underway."
The Human Rights Campaign said the poll shows how useless Republican anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and policies are.
“This polling reflects what we’ve been saying all along: the future that anti-equality politicians are fear mongering about is already here,” Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson said in a press release. “LGBTQ+ Americans have always been here, and we are not going anywhere. There are way too many of us to be ignored, there are way too many of us to drive us out of everyday life, and the politicians who think they can turn back the clock on LGBTQ+ acceptance will fail. It is a beautiful thing that growing acceptance over the course of recent decades has allowed more and more people to show up as their authentic selves, and we should all be working toward a future where everyone can be exactly who they are.”
