LGBTQ+ share of U.S. adults holds at record level, research shows

The share of U.S. adults who identify as LGBTQ+ remained at 9 percent in 2025, matching 2024’s record high, according to a new Gallup survey. This represents more than double the 3.5 percent recorded when Gallup first began tracking LGBTQ+ identification in 2012, underscoring a continued expansion of openly LGBTQ+ identity in public life.

Gallup previously measured LGBTQ+ identification at roughly 7 percent between 2021 and 2023, before it climbed to 9 percent in 2024. Bisexual identity remains the most prevalent within the LGBTQ+ community.

Young adults are the primary drivers of this visibility. The latest poll shows 23 percent of adults under 30 identifying as LGBTQ+, compared with 10 percent of those aged 30 to 49 and 3 percent or less among those 50 and older.

LGBTQ+ identification is higher among women than men, largely because women are significantly more likely to identify as bisexual. Identification is also more common among Democrats than Republicans and is higher in urban areas than in suburban or rural communities. Rates are relatively consistent across major racial and ethnic groups.

Within the LGBTQ+ population, 58.6 percent of respondents said they are bisexual. Another 17.4 percent identified as gay, 16 percent as lesbian, 12.1 percent as transgender, and 5.8 percent selected another identity under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, such as queer or pansexual. Because respondents could select more than one identity, these figures sum to more than 100 percent.

Looking at the adult population overall, 5.3 percent identified as bisexual, 1.6 percent as gay, 1.4 percent as lesbian, 1.1 percent as transgender, and 0.5 percent as another LGBTQ+ identity. The relatively small share of adults who identify as nonbinary overwhelmingly also identify as LGBTQ+, most often as bisexual or transgender.

“Bisexual identity has consistently been the most common LGBTQ+ identity and has grown sharply since Gallup began measuring lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identities as separate categories in 2020,” the organization reported. In 2020, 3.1 percent of U.S. adults identified as bisexual, and all major LGBTQ+ identities have increased in visibility since that time. Gallup notes that bisexual identification far exceeds gay and lesbian identification among younger adults, while it is roughly comparable to gay and lesbian identification among older generations.

Gallup anticipates that the overall LGBTQ+ share of the adult population will continue to rise as more members of Generation Z—those born between 1997 and 2012—reach adulthood. Nearly one in four Gen Z adults already identify as something other than heterosexual, with especially large proportions identifying as bisexual.

The latest results are based on telephone interviews conducted in 2025 with more than 13,000 U.S. adults. In these surveys, Gallup routinely includes questions about sexual orientation and gender identity. The most recent data show 86 percent of adults identifying as heterosexual, 9 percent as LGBTQ+, and 5 percent declining to state their orientation or identity.