Gallup: LGBTQ+ identification in US rises to 7.6% — 1 in 5 of Gen-Z

The percentage of U.S. adults identifying as LGBTQ+ has continued to increase, reaching a new high of 7.6% in the latest Gallup poll.

If current trends continue, the U.S. LGBTQ+ population could be 10% within three decades, Gallup said in the results from 2023 polling. 

Gallup said the percentage of U.S. adults who consider themselves part of the LGBTQ+ community has more than doubled since the organization first asked about sexual orientation and transgender identity in 2012.

The current figure is up from 5.6% in 2020, and 3.5% in 2012, Gallup’s first year of measuring sexual orientation and transgender identity.

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Gallup said, each younger generation is almost twice as likely as the generation before to self-identify as LGBTQ+.

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Gallup said that more than 1 in 5 Gen Z adults, ranging in age from 18 to 26 in 2023, identify as LGBTQ+. The polling agency said that 1 in 10 millennials, who are aged 27 to 42, also identify as LGBTQ+.

The percentage drops to less than 5% of Generation X, 2% of baby boomers, and 1% of the Silent Generation.

Bisexual adults make up the largest proportion of the LGBTQ+ population — 4.4% of U.S. adults and 57.3% of LGBTQ+ adults say they are bisexual. 

Gay and lesbian are the next-most-common identities, each representing slightly over 1% of U.S. adults and roughly one in six LGBTQ+ adults. 

Slightly less than 1% of U.S. adults and about one in eight LGBTQ+ adults are transgender, Gallup said.