According to a recent Gallup poll, 7.6% of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ+, up 5.6% from just four years ago. This percentage is also up from 3.5% in 2012, the first year Gallup surveyed LGBTQ+ identification.
The study also found that younger adult generations were responsible for increased identification rates. An adult in their own generation is about twice as likely to identify as LGBTQ+ as an adult in the generation before theirs. For example, the report found that 22.3% of Generation Z members are LGBTQ+, compared to 9.8% of Millenials, 4.5% of members of Generation X, and so on.
The largest group of queer adults is bisexual individuals, representing 4.4% of US adults and 57.3% of LGBTQ+ adults in the US. The next largest group was gay men, representing 18.1% of LGTBQ+ adults in the U.S. Older generations were just as or more likely to identify as gay or lesbian than as bisexual.
The report also found that women were more likely to identify as LGBTQ+. It is worth noting that the survey does not currently account for nonbinary individuals, who currently represent about 1% of U.S. adults.
The report concludes that if the data continues to track as it has since 2012, LGBTQ+ adults will make up more than 10% of the U.S. adult population within the next three decades.
Read the full report here.
A bivocational pastor, writer and spiritual director based in Williamsburg, Virginia, she currently works as a Spiritual Director at Reclamation Theology. Cawthon-Freels is the author of Reclamation: A Queer Pastor’s Guide to Finding Spiritual Growth in the Passages Used to Harm Us (Nurturing Faith Books), and a contributing correspondent at Good Faith Media.
