The share of American adults who identify as non-heterosexual, or LGBT (“lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,” and other), has more than doubled over the past decade.
For the adults from Generation Z it is a whopping 21%, according to the latest sexual orientation data by pollster Gallup.
Youngest Generations Much More Likely to Be LGBT
Gallup first started surveying the LGBT identification of the US population back in 2012; back then, the share of non-straight individuals in the country was found to be 3.5%.
The freshly released data on the topic by the pollster found that today, exactly 10 years later, the share of American adults who consider themselves LGBT has spiked to 7.1%.
In 2022, 7.1% of adult Americans identify as LGBT, 86.3% said they were are heterosexual, while another 6.6% didn’t answer the question.
In its release, Gallup said the spike in the percentage of LGBT Americans over the past few years is due to a greater number “of such identities” with the youngest generations when they are compared with those “older” American generations.
The share of adults who say they are gay, lesbian, transgender, or bisexual is the highest among the American adults from Generation Z, which are those born between 1997 and 2012.
Those from Generation Z who were born between 1997 and 2003 already reached adulthood; 21% of them say they are LGBT or something other than heterosexual.
🔹”If the trend of millennials and Generation Z increasingly identifying as LGBTQ continues, “the proportion of LGBT Americans should exceed 10 percent in the near future,” Gallup found.” pic.twitter.com/3DsTcM59uu
— Brad Carl (@DCBradCarl) February 17, 2022
57% of LGBT as Bisexuals
The pollster also found the sharp increase in the share of LGBT identification among Generation Z indicates that its younger members – who became 18 after 2017 – are more likely to consider themselves LGBT.
Gallup even predicts if the trend in question continues, the share of Generation Z adults who say they are gay or non-heterosexual “will grow even higher” after the entire cohort reaches adulthood.
The Gallup data also showed over half (57%) of all American adults who say they are LGBT identify as bisexual. That is a total of 4% of all American adults. Each of the other groups – gay, lesbian, transgender and other – makes up fewer than 2% of the US adult population.
The Gallup pollster points out it only started to ask about the respective LGBT category that every non-heterosexual adult identified with as of 2020.
However, it says that data from other institutions consistently shows the bisexual category has been the largest among LGBT individuals.
This pollster adds that its analyses indicate that adults who say they are bisexual are a lot more likely to live with or marry a partner of the opposite sex than of the same sex.
Among Generation Z adults, bisexuals make up a total of 15%, while the other LGBT adults are 6%. Among millennials, the share of bisexuals is 6%, and the other LGBT adults make up just 4.5%.
Gallup predicts that “in the near future”, the number of American adults who consider themselves LGBT “should exceed 10%.”
Identify as LGBT (Gallup's term / definition) …
– Boomers – 3%
– Gen X – 4%
– Millennials – 11%
– Gen Z – 21%https://t.co/lv7Cy3K0e7
— Steve Koczela (@skoczela) February 17, 2022
This new Gallup poll getting write ups doesn't say it directly. And the cross tabs aren't public. But within rapidly rising LGBTQ identification in US the big driver seems to be Gen Z ad Millennial women who identify as bisexual. https://t.co/KYH39rckuh
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 17, 2022