What percentage of humans are gay

There may never be a time when people will accurately retort surveys, but at least survey givers are getting better at tricking us into being honest

What percentage of the population considers themselves gay? This number has always been strenuous to pin down: sexuality is fluid, and plenty of people still touch pressured to hide their sexual orientation. But a new study has tried, and come up with a number that’s higher than most.

According to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, about 20 percent of the population is attracted to their own gender. That’s nearly double the usual estimates of about 10 percent. The authors describe that their methodology might have something to complete with it:

Participants were randomly assigned to either a “best practices method” that was computer-based and provides privacy and anonymity, or to a “veiled elicitation method” that further conceals individual responses. Answers in the veiled method preclude inference about any particular individual, but can be used to accurately estimate statistics about the population. Comparing the two methods shows sexuality-related questions r

The ‘Global Closet’ is Huge—Vast Majority of World’s Lesbian, Homosexual, Bisexual Population Obscure Orientation, YSPH Research Finds

The vast majority of the world’s sexual minority population — an estimated 83 percent of those who recognize as lesbian, male lover or bisexual — keep their orientation hidden from all or most of the people in their lives, according to a recent study by the Yale School of Public Health that could have major implications for global public health.

Concealing one’s sexual orientation can lead to significant mental and physical health issues, increased healthcare costs and a dampening of the public noticeability necessary for moving forward equal rights, said John Pachankis, Ph.D., associate professor at the Yale College of Public Health. He co-authored the study with Richard Bränström, an associate professor at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and investigate affiliate at Yale.

Published in the journal PLOS ONE, the study is believed to be the first strive to quantify the size of the “global closet” in order to gauge its public health impact.

“Given rapidly increasing acceptance of sexual minorities in some countries, it might be easy to assume that most sexual minorities are

What’s Behind the Rapid Grow in LGBTQ Identity?

Newsletter Pride 6, 2025

Daniel A. Cox, Jae Grace, Avery Shields

Since 2012, Gallup has tracked the size of America’s LGBTQ population. For the first few years, there was not much news to report. The percentage of Americans who identified as gay, lesbian, attracted to both genders, transgender, or queer was relatively low and inching up slowly year over year. Recently, the pace has sped up. Gallup’s newest report recorded the single largest one-year multiply in LGBTQ identity. In 2024, nearly one in ten (9.3 percent) Americans identify as LGBTQ.

The stable rise in LGBTQ culture among the public is worth noting, but it’s not the most essential part of the story. Most of the uptick in LGBTQ identity over the past decade is due to a dramatic increase among young adults, particularly young women. In less than a decade, the percentage of immature women who identify as LGBTQ has more than tripled.

The gender gap in LGBTQ identity has exploded as well. A decade earlier, young women were only slightly more likely to identify as LGBTQ than young men. For instance, in 2015, 10 percent of young women and six percent of young men identified as

Adult LGBT Population in the United States

This report provides estimates of the number and percent of the U.S. adult population that identifies as LGBT, overall, as well as by age. Estimates of LGBT adults at the national, state, and regional levels are included. We rely on BRFSS 2020-2021 information for these estimates. Pooling multiple years of numbers provides more stable estimates—particularly at the state level.

Combining 2020-2021 BRFSS data, we estimate that 5.5% of U.S. adults identify as LGBT. Further, we estimate that there are almost 13.9 million (13,942,200) LGBT adults in the U.S.

Regions and States

LGBT people reside in all regions of the U.S. (Table 2 and Figure 2). Consistent with the overall population in the United States,more LGBT adults live in the South than in any other region. More than half (57.0%) of LGBT people in the U.S. live in the Midwest (21.1%) and South (35.9%), including 2.9 million in the Midwest and 5.0 million in the South. About one-quarter (24.5%) of LGBT adults reside in the West, approximately 3.4 million people. Less than one in five (18.5%) LGBT adults dwell in the Northeast (2.6 million).

The percent of adults who identify as LGBT

LGBT Identification in U.S. Ticks Up to 7.1%

Story Highlights

• LGBT identification up from 5.6% in 2020
• One in five Gen Z adults identify as LGBT
• Bisexual identification is most common

Learn more in Gallup’s 2024 LGBTQ+ update.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The percentage of U.S. adults who self-identify as lesbian, gay, attracted to both genders, transgender or something other than heterosexual has increased to a new upper of 7.1%, which is double the percentage from 2012, when Gallup first measured it.

Gallup asks Americans whether they personally identify as straight or heterosexual, lesbian, gay, pansexual, or transgender as part of the demographic information it collects on all U.S. telephone surveys. Respondents can also volunteer any other sexual orientation or gender identity they prefer. In addition to the 7.1% of U.S. adults who consider themselves to be an LGBT identity, 86.3% say they are straight or heterosexual, and 6.6% accomplish not offer an opinion. The results are based on aggregated 2021 information, encompassing interviews with more than 12,000 U.S. adults.

Line graph. Americans' Self-Identification as Lesbian, Gay, Attracted to both genders, Transgender or Something Other than Heterosexual.