Number of LGBTQ Americans has doubled in ten years, survey shows

Words: Alastair James; pictures: Pexels

A record number of Americans are identifying as LGBTQ according to a recent poll conducted by the analytics company, Gallup.

Results show that 7.1 percent of people in the US now identify as LGBTQ, double the 3.5 percent recorded in 2012 when Gallup first measured the LGBTQ population. 

The pollsters collect the data as part of all telephone surveys it conducts. People are asked if they personally identify as straight or heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender and can also list any other sexual or gender identity they prefer.

Gallup’s latest estimate finds 7.1% of U.S. adults identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual. https://t.co/N38yNRE0eb pic.twitter.com/uPzBdJYK2a

— GallupNews (@GallupNews) February 17, 2022

More than 12,000 people took part in the survey carried out in 2021. 86.3 percent of people identify are straight or heterosexual, and 6.6% did not offer an opinion. 

Gallup says around 21 percent of people born between 1997 and 2003 – considered Gen-Z – identify as LGBTQ with 10.5 percent of Millenials (those born between 1981 and 1996) identifying as LGBTQ. The number more than halves for the next generation – Generation X (1965-1980) – and nearly halves again for Baby Boomers (1946-64). 

Only 0.8 percent of those born before 1946 identify as LGBTQ, according to Gallup’s results. 

The group says the number of people identifying as LGBTQ in older age groups has remained fairly steady since 2012, while those in younger groups (millennials and Gen-Z) have seen an increase. 

Other results from the survey include:

– 57 percent of LGBTQ Americans identify as bisexual (4 percent of all U.S. adults)

– 21 percent of LGBT Americans identify as gay (less than 2 percent of U.S. adults)

– 14 percent of LGBT Americans identify as lesbian (less than 2 percent of U.S. adults)

– 10 percent of LGBT Americans identify as transgender and 4 percent as something else (less than 2 percent of U.S. adults)

Gallup concludes that the results show the percentage of US adults identifying as LGBTQ will only continue to grow and that LGBTQ Americans will make up 10 percent of the entire country’s population “in the near future”.

Attitude’s new-look March/April issue is out now.