US LGBT identification up by 7.1% in 2021: Gallup
US LGBT identification among adults has increased to a new high of 7.1 percent last year, double since 2012 when polling service Gallup first measured it, and up from 5.6 percent in 2020.
While bisexual identification was the most common in terms of identification, one in five Gen Z adults have identified as LGBT.
In telephone interviews conducted by Gallup in their survey of more than 12,000 US adults last year, 86.3 percent also identified as straight or heterosexual while 6.6 percent did not offer an opinion.
Increasing trend in US LGBT identification
Gallup conducts this survey of asking Americans to personally identify themselves as part of the demographic information it collects.
Aside from 2021 and 2020, LGBTQ identification kept increasing in the past years with 4.5 percent in 2017 and 4.1 percent in 2016. This question was not asked in 2018 and 2019.
For the years of 2012 and 2015, this ranged from 3.5 percent to 3.9 percent.
Gallup noted that this increase in recent years largely reflects the higher prevalence of LGBT identities among the youngest US adults as compared to older generations in the US adult population.
In fact, around 21 percent of Generation Z adults– or those born between 1997 and 2003– identify as LGBT. This is more than double the proportion of millennials who also identify as LGBT.
The Gen Z proportion had also increased, from 7 percent from 2017 to 12 percent in 2021. Meanwhile, those born before 1946 had gone down from 11 percent in 2017 to eight percent in 2021.
Other trends in generation proportions
Another trend recorded by the Gallup poll was that more than half of LGBT adults in the US identified as bisexual, or 57 percent. This translates to 4.0 percent of all US adults.
Meanwhile, 21 percent of LGBT adults said they were gay, while 41 percent said they were lesbians, 10 percent were transgender, and four percent were some thing else. Each accounts for less than two percent of US adults.
Gallup’s polling before 2020 doesn’t measure how many American adults identified in each LGBT category.
However, previous data collected by other research institutions as well as Gallup’s 2020 estimate are consistent in noting that bisexual is the most common LGBT identity.
Identifying as bisexual is the most common among Gen Z, millennials, and Gen X. Meanwhile, older Americans are about as likely to say they are gay or lesbian as compared to bisexual.
Around 15 percent of Gen Z, six percent of millennials, and less than two percent of Gen X identify as bisexual.
Men and women identifying as LGBT
The Gallup poll also found out that more women are likely to identify as bisexual as compared to men, six percent versus two percent.
However, more men are likely to identify as gay with 2.5 percent as compared to bisexual, while women are much more likely to identify as bisexual than as lesbian with 1.9 percent.
Lastly, Gallup noted that the proportion of US adults that identify as LGBT has grown at a faster rate over the past year as compared to prior years.
This is due to the fact that more of the Gen Z are reaching adulthood, with more young adults reaching adult age while having come to terms with their sexuality or gender identity.
Moreover, this period is when more Americans hare becoming more accepting gays, lesbians, and transgender people– even as LGBT individuals can now enjoy more legal protection against discrimination.
Given that one in 10 millennials and one in five Gen Z members identifying as LGBT, Gallup said the proportion of LGBT Americans should exceed ten percent in the near future.