The proportion of American adults identified as LGBT has reached 7.1% in the United States, according to data released by the Gallup poll firm on Thursday.
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Of the 12,000 Americans surveyed by phone in 2021, 86.3% said they were transgender and 7.1% said LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans) and 6.6% did not answer.
The survey was first conducted in 2012, and the percentage of those identified as LGBT was 3.5%. It is increasing gradually from the first.
The LGBT population is proportionally higher among the younger generation, especially those of Generation Z, who were born between 1997 and early 2010.
Thus, 20.8% – or 1 in 5 – of Gen Z adults identified as LGBT (only those born up to 2003 were adults at the time of the survey).
This is more than double the 10.5% of “millennials” (born between 1981 and 1996) identified as LGBT.
The rate for Generation X (1965-1980) fell to 4.2%, for baby boomers (1946-1964) to 2.6%, and for those born before 1946 to 0.8%.
Since 2012, the proportion of LGBT individuals among child boomers or General Xers has remained the same, with only a small increase among millennials.
In contrast, the proportion of LGBT adults in Gen Z has doubled since 2017 (when only its members born between 1997 and 1999 were already adults), showing an upward trend within this generation.
“If this trend continues among General Z, the proportion of American adults who identify all members of this generation as LGBT will grow further,” Galep said.
For the first time, the company also noted the proportion of LGBT individuals identified in each category.
More than half (57%) of LGBT Americans are identified as bisexual – or 4% of the total adult population.
Then 21% of LGBT people said they were gay, 14% were lesbian, 10% were transgender, and 4% said “strangely anything other than homosexuality”.
This generational change is taking place against the backdrop of growing tolerance: “Americans are increasingly accepting of homosexuals, lesbians or transgender people” and LGBT people are now “more secure,” Gallup underlined.
