The US-based Human Rights Campaign Foundation this week released updated population estimates showing that a record-high 12% of adults, at least in the US, totaling roughly 25.6 million people, identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or gender diverse.
This is according to US-based Human Rights Campaign Foundation, whose analysis drew from more than 2.4 million responses to the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey collected between 2021 and 2024.
The survey is one of the last major federal data sources to include a gender identity measure before the administration of Donald Trump – the first convicted felon to serve as American president – removed sexual orientation and gender identity questions from approximately 360 federal data collections.
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.
According to the same report, younger people are more likely to identify as LGBTQ+.
The full report is available at the Human Rights Campaign website.
