LGBTQ+ Adults in the United States: New Population Estimates
Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, the HRC Foundation produced updated estimates regarding the size and demographic composition of the LGBTQ+ adult population in the United States. These estimates include breakdowns by age, race and ethnicity, education, region, state, and major metropolitan area. The analysis utilizes federal data collected from 2021 through 2024, prior to the widespread removal of sexual orientation and gender identity measures from federal data collections.
The LGBTQ+ Population at a Glance
To contextualize these estimates, this report examines the LGBTQ+ population using two perspectives. The profile view presents the demographic composition of both LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ populations, such as the percentage of LGBTQ+ adults who are ages 18–24 or Hispanic. The identification view analyzes specific demographic groups to determine the percentage who identify as LGBTQ+, for example, the percentage of adults ages 18–24 or Hispanic adults who are LGBTQ+. These complementary perspectives offer a comprehensive understanding of the composition of the LGBTQ+ population and the variation in LGBTQ+ identification across demographic groups.
Throughout the report, LGBTQ+ is used as an inclusive umbrella term. For this analysis, it includes adults classified as lesbian or gay, bisexual+, transgender, or gender-expansive.
LGBTQ+ People Across the United States
LGBTQ+ adults live in every state and region of the country. This analysis provides estimates for the United States as a whole, all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and the four major U.S. Census regions. LGBTQ+ people are more than 10% of the population in 40 of 50 states. These geographic estimates show where LGBTQ+ adults live across the country, including identification rates and estimated population totals.
LGBTQ+ Population Estimates in Sortable Tables
LGBTQ+ Adults Across U.S. Regions
Who Makes Up the LGBTQ+ Population?
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
The LGBTQ+ population includes a diverse range of sexual orientations and gender identities. Among LGBTQ+ adults, approximately 65% are bisexual+, 30% are lesbian or gay, and 5% are straight-identifying transgender or gender-expansive adults. When considering gender identity separately, approximately 21% of LGBTQ+ adults are transgender or gender-expansive, while the remainder are cisgender men or women.
These measures represent two distinct dimensions of a person’s identity; therefore, the sexual orientation and gender identity charts should be interpreted separately, not as categories that combine into a single total.
Age
Age is a prominent distinguishing factor between LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ adult populations. From the population profile perspective, more than half of LGBTQ+ adults (approximately 54%) are younger than 35, compared with about 22% of non-LGBTQ+ adults. Adults ages 25–34 constitute roughly one-third of the LGBTQ+ adult population.
The identification perspective reveals a similar generational pattern within age groups. Nearly 32% of adults ages 18–24 and 22% of adults ages 25–34 identify as LGBTQ+, compared with approximately 12% of adults ages 35–44 and less than 8% of each older age group.
Race and Ethnicity
LGBTQ+ people are part of every racial and ethnic community, and understanding these intersecting identities is essential to understanding the LGBTQ+ population as a whole. The racial and ethnic composition of LGBTQ+ adults differs in several respects from the non-LGBTQ+ population. For instance, Hispanic adults constitute approximately 18% of LGBTQ+ adults compared to 13% of non-LGBTQ+ adults, while adults categorized in other racial groups account for about 7% compared to 4%. Black and Asian adults represent somewhat smaller shares of the LGBTQ+ population than of the non-LGBTQ+ population.
The identification perspective offers another view of intersectionality in the LGBTQ+ community. Approximately 16% of Hispanic adults and 18% of adults categorized in other racial groups identify as LGBTQ+, compared to approximately 11% of White adults, 10% of Black adults, and 9% of Asian adults.
Education
The educational profiles of LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ adults are broadly similar, with only minor differences. LGBTQ+ adults are more likely to have an associate degree or some college experience and less likely to have only a high school education or less, or a graduate degree. The proportion with a bachelor’s degree is nearly the same across both populations.
Why These Data Matter Now
Reliable population data are essential for understanding the size, composition, experiences, and needs of LGBTQ+ communities. The HRC Foundation originally developed these estimates to create updated benchmarks for weighting Community Insights research, enabling our surveys to more accurately reflect the demographic composition of LGBTQ+ adults.
The need for reliable data on the LGBTQ+ population has become increasingly urgent. Since President Trump returned to office in January 2025, his administration has significantly reduced federal collection of sexual orientation and gender identity data. According to a report from the Williams Institute, during the first year of the second Trump administration, approximately 360 federal data collections removed at least one sexual orientation or gender identity measure, including 338 that removed gender identity measures and at least 60 that removed sexual orientation measures. These changes diminish the federal government’s capacity to measure LGBTQ+ populations and to understand their experiences and needs.
This rollback follows years of progress toward more inclusive federal data collection. In 2024, the Census Bureau conducted a large-scale test of questions on sexual orientation and gender identity for possible inclusion in the American Community Survey, the nation’s primary source of detailed demographic data. The test involved nearly half a million households, but the Bureau has not released the promised reports and datasets showing how those questions performed. In September 2025, a researcher filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking their release, alleging that the Census Bureau had unlawfully withheld the records.
While existing sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) measures are being removed from federal surveys, data that could inform the future of LGBTQ+ measurement remain unavailable. As a result, large federal datasets that previously collected these measures, including the 2021–2024 Household Pulse Survey data used in this report, have become an increasingly important resource for understanding LGBTQ+ communities nationwide.
Removing LGBTQ+ people from federal data collection does not make our communities disappear; it makes them harder to see, understand, and serve.
Understanding the Estimates
The HRC Foundation initially conducted this analysis to update the population benchmarks used to weight surveys conducted through our Community Insights research program. Because Community Insights is an opt-in research panel rather than a probability sample of the U.S. population, demographic benchmarks are used to adjust survey data so that respondents more closely reflect the broader LGBTQ+ adult population. The population totals reported here emerged from that broader benchmarking and development work.
The objective was not to obtain a higher estimate of the LGBTQ+ population or to designate a single survey as the definitive source for the number of LGBTQ+ adults. The HRC Foundation selected the Household Pulse Survey due to its large sample size, national probability-based design, detailed demographic data, separate measures for sexual orientation and gender identity, and availability of public-use survey weights. These features make it particularly suitable for developing stable population benchmarks.
The estimates are based on 37 rounds of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey conducted between 2021 and 2024, yielding 2,452,769 responses before exclusions for missing or imputed data. The Household Pulse Survey is a national, probability-based, online household survey that previously included separate questions on sexual orientation, sex assigned at birth, and current gender identity.
Combining multiple survey rounds enables analysis of larger samples, facilitating examination of smaller populations and demographic subgroups beyond what a single annual survey could provide. Since the estimates pool data across four years, they represent average population benchmarks for 2021–2024, rather than estimates for a specific point in time.
There is no single definitive count of LGBTQ+ adults in the United States. Population estimates vary because surveys differ in how they recruit respondents, how they phrase questions, which identities they include, the response options, and how they handle missing or uncertain responses. HRC’s estimate of 12.03% is based on the Census Bureau’s self-administered Household Pulse Survey, while Gallup’s most recent estimate of 9% is based on telephone interviews and a different approach to measuring LGBTQ+ identity. Self-administered surveys may offer greater privacy when people answer sensitive questions, which may contribute to differences in disclosure.
This difference aligns with a broader trend of increasing LGBTQ+ identification. Gallup’s estimate has risen from 3.5% in 2012 to 9% in 2025, with much of this increase driven by younger generations. Gallup has noted that these generational differences may reflect, at least in part, greater social acceptance and a greater willingness to identify openly as LGBTQ+, rather than a change in the underlying prevalence of LGBTQ+ identities. Research on LGBTQ+ adults similarly indicates that younger generations have come out at younger ages as social acceptance has increased.
Although the overall estimates differ, their broad demographic patterns are notably similar. Both HRC and Gallup find that LGBTQ+ identification is substantially higher among younger adults and declines with age. Both also report that bisexual individuals constitute the largest share of the LGBTQ+ population: approximately 65% in HRC’s estimates, compared with about 59% in Gallup’s latest data.
The overall estimate encompasses adults identified in the Household Pulse Survey as lesbian or gay, bisexual+, transgender, or gender-expansive. The bisexual+ category includes respondents who selected bisexual as well as those who selected another sexual identity not represented by the available categories. The transgender or gender-expansive classification is determined using respondents’ reported sex assigned at birth and current gender identity.
Transgender and gender-expansive adults who identify as straight are included in the LGBTQ+ population estimate. Respondents who selected “I don’t know” for sexual identity, as well as certain missing or imputed responses, are excluded from the primary estimates in accordance with the procedures outlined in the full methodology.
Methodology
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation developed population benchmarks for LGBTQ+ adults using public-use data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey (HPS). Data from 37 HPS cross-sections collected between 2021 and 2024—Weeks 34–63 and Phases 4.0–4.1—were pooled to provide a large and stable basis for estimating sexual and gender identity characteristics among U.S. adults. The pooled file contained approximately 2.45 million respondents before exclusions. Analyses were restricted to non-imputed observations for key demographic measures, and item nonresponse was excluded from benchmark construction. Sexual identity and gender identity were harmonized across survey waves and combined to classify respondents as LGBTQ+ if they identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or another sexual minority identity, or as transgender or gender-expansive; respondents who were both straight and cisgender were classified as non-LGBTQ+.
To account for pooling across repeated cross-sections, HPS person and replicate weights were rescaled by the 37 included survey waves, producing estimates that represent the average U.S. adult population distribution across the 2021–2024 period. Population proportions and totals were estimated using the pooled person weights, while variances and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using the Census Bureau’s 80 replicate weights and balanced repeated replication (BRR) with Fay’s adjustment of 0.5. These estimates provide population benchmarks for calibrating HRC Foundation’s nonprobability LGBTQ+ research data, including benchmarks for overall LGBTQ+ status and distributions by sexual identity, gender identity, age, education, race and ethnicity, region, and geography.
Link to the full methodology and tables.