The percentage of American adults identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender increased to 4.5% in 2017, up from 4.1% in 2016 and 3.5% in 2012 when Gallup began tracking the measure. They base their survey on random telephone interviews conducted as part of their daily tracking.
Gallup’s LGBT estimates are
based on those respondents who say “yes” when asked, “Do you, personally,
identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender?” Extrapolation to the latest
census estimate of adults 18 and older in the U.S. suggests that more than 11
million adults identify as LGBT in the country today.
The expansion in the number
of Americans who identify as LGBT is driven primarily by millennials, defined
as those born between 1980 and 1999. The percentage of millennials who identify
as LGBT expanded from 7.3% to 8.1% from 2016 to 2017, is up from 5.8% in 2012.
By contrast, the LGBT percentage in Generation X (those born from 1965 to 1979)
was up only .2% from 2016 to 2017. There was no change last year in LGBT
percentage among baby boomers (born 1946 through 1964) and traditionalists
(born prior to 1946). The roughly one-percent increase in LGBT identification
among millennials from 2016 to 2017 is the biggest year-to-year increase among
any age group since tracking began in 2012.
Women continue to be more
likely to identify as LGBT than men. Overall, 5.1% of women in 2017 identified
as LGBT, compared with 3.9% of men. The change among men over time has been
minimal. On the other hand, the percentage of women identifying as LGBT has
risen from 3.5% in 2012 to 5.1% today, with the largest jump occurring between
2016 and 2017.
The relative rank order of
the LGBT percentages between four race and ethnic groups has remained roughly the
same over the last several years. At 6.1%, Hispanics continue to be the single
race or ethnic group most likely to identify as LGBT, while the 4.0% of whites
who identify, as LGBT remains the lowest. LGBT identification among blacks and
Asians, 4.9% and 5.0%, respectively, is essentially midway between the
estimates for Hispanics and whites.
LGBT identification is more
common among those with lower incomes, as has been the case consistently since
2012. The income gap is larger this year than it has been, with 6.2% of those
making less than $36,000 a year in household income identifying as LGBT,
compared with 3.9% of those making $90.000 or more. There are no major
differences in LGBT identification by educational attainment, although the
percentage of postgraduates who self-reported as LGBT is slightly lower than
those with less formal education.
The value of the Gallup data
is the use of a constant question wording over time and the largest yearly
sample sizes of any effort to measure sexual and gender orientation in the U.S.
(the Census does not regularly include such questions in its population
updates). Therefore, the upward trajectory in these estimates of the LGBT adult
population provides an important social indicator relating to this key aspect
of contemporary American society.
