Last week Gallup released its latest study of how Americans identify their own sexuality. The result: 7.2% of US adults identified as LGBTQ in 2022, double the percentage who identified that way when Gallup began measuring a decade ago.
Younger generations — millennials and adult members of Generation Z — were the most likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, pansexual or asexual, according to the study. These results come amid a national wave of more than 320 bills targeting LGBTQ people. Many of them, like North Carolina’s Senate Bill 49 and House Bill 43, target the identities of LGBTQ youth.
Today, a by-the-numbers look at a nation growing queerer even as lawmakers move to remove LGBTQ books from public libraries, outlaw public drag performances and prevent both transgender youth and adults from accessing gender affirming care recommended by their doctors and the nation’s largest and most respected medical associations.
(Source: Gallup U.S. LGBTQ Identification Study, 2022)
10,000 – Number of American adults surveyed by Gallup for its latest identification survey
7.2 – Percentage who identified as LGBTQ
By generation, percentage of adults identifying as LGBTQ
19.7 – Gen Z, born between 1997-2004
11.2 – Millennials, born 1981 between 1996
3.3 – Gen X, born from 1965 to 1980
2.7 – Baby Boomers, born from 1946 to 1964
1.7 – Silent Generation, born in 1945 and earlier
Percentage of LGBTQ adults and specifically how they identify
58.2 – who said they are bisexual
20.2 – who said they are gay
13.4 – who said they are lesbian
8.8 – who said they are transgender
1.8 – who said they are “other LGBTQ”
1.7 – who said they are pansexual, or not limited in sexual attraction to biological sex, gender, or gender identity.
1.3 – who said they are asexual, or may have little or no interest in having sex.
1.2 – who said they are queer, a term used by some LGBTQ people to signify their sexuality or gender identity is something other than heterosexual or cisgender. The term may be considered offensive to some even within the LGBTQ community.
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