A Gallup Poll shows that nearly one in 10 adults in the United States identifies as being LGBTQ+, with results showing that the figures have nearly doubled since 2020 and nearly tripled since 2012, when the pollsters first measured the numbers.
The poll, released Thursday, shows that younger generations are more likely to identify their sexual preferences as being other than heterosexual, with more than one in five Gen Z adults and 14% of millennials identified as being LGBTQ+.
But as the age brackets got older, the numbers identifying as being other than homosexual dropped, down to just 1.8% of Americans born before 1946 identifying as LGBTQ+.
The poll was based on telephone interviews conducted of 14,162 adults from all 50 states in 2024, with a margin of error rate of 1 percentage point, and including 899 adults identifying as LGBTQ+, with a margin of error rate of 4 points.
LGBTQ+ identification rates also increased among younger adults, from an average of 18.8% of Gen Z adults in 2020 through 2022 to an average of 22.7% from 2022-24.
The growth of people in the older generations increased some, but not as dramatically. There was a nearly two-point increase among millennials, from 10.3% to 12%, and a one-point increase in Generation X adults, from 3.8% to 4.8%.
There was not a meaningful change among baby boomers or the "Silent Generation."
There was a one-point increase among Generation X (from 3.8% to 4.8%). There has not been a meaningful change among baby boomers or the Silent Generation.
Overall, the poll showed that 85.7% identified as straight; 5.2% as bisexual; 2% as gay; 1.4% as lesbian; and 3% as transgender. Just under 1% said they fall under another identity such as queer, pansexual, or asexual, and 5% of the respondents declined to answer.
Meanwhile, among the nearly 900 LGBTQ+ individuals interviewed, 56%, said they were bisexual; 21% said they were gay; 15% lesbian; 14% transgender; and 6%, another identity.
The figures came out to more than 100% as the survey allowed respondents to identify under multiple categories. The overall estimate of 9.3% of adults who identified as LGBTQ+ counted each respondent just once, even if they identified under more than one category.
One reason younger generations were more likely to identify as LGBTQ+ was that they were more likely to consider themselves as being bisexual.
The poll showed that more than half of Gen Z, at 59%, and millennials, at 52%, identified as being bisexual.
The numbers dropped to 44% in Generation X and less than 20% among baby boomers and the Silent Generation. The older generations were more likely to identify as gay or lesbian, not bisexual.
LGBTQ+ identification was also higher among women, liberals, and urban residents, the poll found.
Democrats, at 14%, and independents, at 11%, were far more likely than Republicans, at 3% to identify as LGBTQ+.
Further, 21% of liberals, compared to 8% of moderates and 3% of conservatives, said they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
Also, 10% of women versus 6% of men said they are LGBTQ+ with the difference being mainly because women were more likely than men to identify as bisexual.
Just between 1% and 2% of U.S. adults identified themselves as being nonbinary, but 89% of those in the nonbinary group identified as LGBTQ+.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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