Sexual Orientation in the United States

 

Now that we know the most common sexual orientations, let’s take a look at how common they are in the United States.

This article will examine the results of Gallup’s survey of more than 10,000 US adults in 2022.

Gallup found 7.2% of American adults identify as LGBT. 

 

Specifically, Gallup asked the following: 

 

Which of the following do you consider yourself to be? You can select as many as apply.

·        Straight or heterosexual

·        Lesbian

·        Gay

·        Bisexual

·        Transgender

 

Respondents who volunteered an identity not listed were recorded as “Other LGBT” by interviewers.

Gallup counted these respondents when calculating the prevalence of LGBT adults.

 

 

A total of 86% of respondents replied they were straight or heterosexual, while 7% chose not to answer the question.

Potentially, some of the 7% who declined to answer the question could be LGBT as well.

 

 

There are both strengths and limitations to Gallup’s approach.

A strength is that they were able to gain a wealth of valuable data from a single question.

 

The first limitation is that the question doesn’t specifically ask about LGBT identities that didn’t make their way into the core four listed in the most common form of the acronym.

It would be great if Gallup, or a similar survey, added Asexual, Nonbinary, and Intersex to their list of LGBT identities that respondents can select.

That would allow us to learn the prevalence of those identities as well, and easily compare their prevalence to the other identities in Gallup's question.

 

Second, Gallup’s wording of its poll question, and its subsequent analysis, present “Straight” as the opposite of LGBT.

LGBT includes transgender people as well, so a better alternate description of non-LGBT people would be “Straight and Cisgender.”

But the term cisgender, which refers to someone who isn’t transgender, would likely confuse many respondents.

I don’t believe a more precise alternate wording would change the results of Gallup’s findings, however. 

This technical mistake annoys me, but it doesn't create problems that impact the accuracy of Gallup’s data.  

 

One way to address both problems would be to use two questions. 

The first first question would ask about sexual orientation and add Asexual as an option. 

The second question would ask respondents whether they identify as transgender, nonbinary, intersex, or none of the above. Respondents could select as many terms as necessary.

This approach would allow for additional categories to be added without overwhelming respondents, and it would avoid erroneously suggesting straight is the opposite of LGBT.

 

 

 

How I would answer Gallup’s question

 

If I received a call from a Gallup surveyor who asked me this question, I would respond that I’m bisexual and transgender.

I prefer panromantic, but bisexual is close enough.

Between straight, bisexual, and gay, bisexual is the closest match to my sexual orientation.

 

I identify as transgender, because I’m nonbinary, even though most people only think about binary transgender people when they hear the term transgender.

I would volunteer nonbinary, genderfluid, and bigender as additional gender identities that describe me.

Although, I may or may not remember to mention bigender. 

 

 

 

LGBT Identity Becoming More Common

 

Gallup began tracking the prevalence of LGBT identities in the US in 2012. That year, Gallup determined 3.5% of US adults identified as LGBT.

The total has more than doubled since then, as you can see in this graph compiled by Gallup, based on its annual survey results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bisexual is the most common LGBT identity

Bisexuals are the largest LGBT group in the United States.

To me, this is one of the most significant finding from Gallup’s LGBT survey.

Most of the debate and discussion about sexual minorities in the U.S. concerns gay men and lesbians, even though there are more bisexuals than gay men and lesbians combined.

In fact, there are almost twice as many bisexuals as gay men and lesbians combined. 

 

 

Here are the percent of US Adults who identify as each of the specific LGBT identities Gallup listed in its survey.

Identity                   U.S. Adults

 

Bisexual                       4.2%

Gay                              1.4%

Lesbian                        1.0%

Transgender                 0.6%

 

The Gallup data is the best source that I’ve found on the prevalence of sexual orientations in the United States.

However, I have found a better source on the prevalence of transgender identities, which we’ll discuss later in this series.

 

Some respondents volunteered LGBT identities that weren’t included in the four Gallup specifically mentioned.

The prevalence of these identities would be more accurately measured if pollsters asked about them specifically.

But the fact that people volunteered these identities, without being asked about them, indicates those respondents have a strong connection with these identities.

A total of 0.1% of US adults identified as each of the following: Pansexual, Asexual, Queer, and other LGBT.

 

 

Gallup also calculated what percent of LGBT adults identified with each identity.

A total of 58.2% of LGBT adults identified as bisexual.

You can see what percent of LGBT adults identified with other identities in the table below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

LGBT Identity More Common in Younger Generations

 

Gallup collected data on the prevalence of LGBT identification by generation.

Each younger generation has more people who identify as LGBT than the one that came before.

 

Generation                           Total LGBT

 

Generation Z                         19.7%

Millennials                             11.2%

Generation X                         3.3%

Baby Boomers                       2.7%

Silent Generation                   1.7%

 

 

The youngest generation in Gallup’s data are Gen Z Adults, who were born between 1997 and 2004, and were ages 18 to 25 in 2022.

A total of 19.7% of Gen Z adults, almost 1 in 5, identify as LGBT.

That’s almost three times the proportion of total US adults who identify as LGBT, which was 7.2%.

 

 

Among Gen Z adults, bisexuals were the largest individual LGBT identity group.

A total of 13.1% Gen Z adults identify as bisexual.

 

Identity                     Percent of Gen Z Adults

 

Total LGBT                            19.7%

Bisexual                                 13.1%

Gay                                          3.4%

Lesbian                                    2.2%

Transgender                             1.9%

Other LGBT                              1.5%

 

 

Bisexuals were the largest LGBT identity group among Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X.

Gay was the largest LGBT identity group among Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation.

You can see the prevalence of each LGBT identity within each generation in the table below.

 

 

 

Gallup has also broken down what percent of LGBT people in each generation identify with each identity.

Two thirds, or 66%, of LGBT Gen Z adults identify as bisexual.

A total of 62% of LGBT Millennials identify as bisexual.

You can see the relative proportion of LGBT identities by generation in the table below.

 

 

 

 

 

Women more likely to be bisexual,

 Men more likely to be gay

  

Gallup didn’t break down its 2022 results by gender.

However, the polling firm did break down its 2021 LGBT data by gender.

 

A total of 6.0% of women identified as bisexual in 2021, compared to 1.9% who identified as lesbian.

So women were three times more likely to identify as bisexual than lesbian.

 

A total of 2.5% of men identified as gay, compared to 2.0% who identified as bisexual.

So while men were more likely to identify as gay than bisexual, the size of these groups were roughly the same.

 

You can see the breakdown of Gallup’s 2021 LGBT data by generation and gender in the table below.

 

 

 

 

 

Unanswered Questions

 

I believe there are two big questions that Gallup’s data leaves unanswered about sexual orientation in the United States. 

First, Gallup's data doesn't specifically ask about Asexuality.  

However, after an extended search, I was able to find a survey that does provide prevalence data about Asexuality in the United States. 

We'll discuss that survey in the next article in this series.

  

Second, we don’t know whether more people prefer to use the term bisexual or pansexual to describe themselves.

Bisexual and pansexual are near synonyms.

Adding both as potential answers in Gallup’s single LGBT question would likely lead to more confusion than clarity, with one identity group either splitting their answers across two similar identities, or choosing both and appearing to the lay viewer as two large, non-overlapping groups.

I would recommend trying to answer this question by asking multiple questions, instead.

 

Q1: Do you identify as bisexual, pansexual, both, or neither?

 

·        Bisexual

·        Pansexual

·        Both

·        Neither

 

 

Q2: IF BOTH: Which do you prefer?

·        Bisexual

·        Pansexual

  

I would love to see the results of these questions compared across generations.

According to Gallup’s data, bisexual identification is more common for each successively younger generation. 

 

My best guess is that younger people prefer the term pansexual to bisexual. 

Because younger people are more likely to identify as being attracted to both men and women, my guess is that pansexual is actually the term that is more strongly favored than bisexual, among people who would identify with one or both of these terms.

But that could only be confirmed by asking the public questions that haven’t been asked, at least as far as I'm aware.

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

The proportion of US Adults who identify as LGBT has consistently grown since Gallup began collecting data on the topic in 2012.

More people in each younger generation identify as LGBT.

Based on Gallup’s data, the largest specific LGBT identity group, by far, are bisexuals, a group that receives relatively little attention and has comparatively low visibility.

This data helps paint a better picture of the size of the LGBT community and what the make-up of the LGBT community looks like.

 

 

I would like to thank Gallup for collecting this data and breaking it down in various ways.

I find their results to be fascinating and valuable, as attitudes toward LGBT people in the United States continue to evolve.

Hopefully, in the long run, we will reach a more accepting and understanding future for LGBT people, both in the US and around the world.