Over One Million Same-Sex Households In The US
December 28, 2022According to recently released government data, the number of same-sex couple households in the U.S. has surpassed 1 million for the first time.
There were more than 1.2 million same-sex couple households across the country in 2021, up from 540,000 in 2008, data from the Census Bureau's annual American Community Survey showed.
About 710,000 (59.2%) of the same-sex couple households were married, and about 500,000 (41.7%) were unmarried, according to NBC News.
The number of married same-sex households started to outnumber unmarried same-sex households in 2016, following the Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 Obergefell vs. Hodges ruling, which effectively legalized gay marriage across the US.
Image Credit: Pixabay
Hawaii has the highest percentage of same-sex couple households of any state, at 1.4%, followed by Oregon and Delaware, both at 1.3%, the Census Bureau data reveals. The District of Columbia, however, blows them all out of the water at 2.5%.
South Dakota has the lowest percentage of same-sex couple households of any state, at 0.4%, followed by Kansas, Mississippi, Idaho, North Dakota and Montana, which are all at 0.5%.
There were some notable differences between same-sex and opposite-sex households.
Same-sex households, for example, are significantly more likely than opposite-sex households to be interracial: In 2021, 31.6% of married same-sex couples were interracial, compared to 18.4% of married opposite-sex couples.
Opposite-sex households, however, were much more likely to have children under 18. In 2021, 38.2% of married opposite-sex couples and 18% of married same-sex couples had children under 18 in their household.
There were also some notable differences between female-female and male-male households, which comprised 52% and 48% of total same-sex households, respectively. For example, the median household income in male same-sex couple households ($116,800 - approximately £97,000) was 26% higher than in female same-sex couple households ($92,470 – approximately £77,000).
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