Nearly 1 Million Same-Sex Couple Households

There were 980,000 same-sex couple households in the United States in 2019, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The 58 percent majority of these households are married couples, and 42 percent are unmarried partners. 

By state, North Dakota has the smallest percentage of same-sex couple households as a share of all coupled households (0.5 percent). The District of Columbia has the largest percentage (7.1 percent). 

By metropolitan area, San Francisco is number one. In the San Francisco metro area, 2.8 percent of all coupled households are same-sex couples. The other metros on the top-10 list are Portland, Seattle, Orlando, Austin, Miami, Boston, Denver, Phoenix, and Baltimore. 

These percentages will grow in the years ahead as more Americans feel free to identify as LGBT because of changing attitudes. According to a recent Gallup survey, 5.6 percent of all Americans aged 18 or older identified as LGBT in 2020. This is up from 3.9 percent in 2015. Self-identification as LGBT increases with each succeeding younger generation. Among Baby Boomers, only 2.0 percent identify as LGBT. The figure is 3.8 percent among Gen Xers, 9.1 percent among Millennials, and 15.9 percent among Gen Z.

Source: Census Bureau, Same-Sex Couple Households: 2019

Big Changes in Attitudes toward LGBT Issues

Gallup has been asking the public what it thinks about LGBT issues for more than 40 years. Below are the percentages of the public in agreement with the first questions Gallup asked in 1977 and the percentages in agreement with the same questions in 2019...

Gay people should have equal rights in terms of job opportunities
2019: 93%
1977: 56%

Gay or lesbian relations between consenting adults should be legal
2019: 83%
1977: 43%

Gays and lesbians should be allowed to adopt children
2019: 75%
1977: 14%

Being gay or lesbian is something a person is born with
2019: 49%
1977: 13%

LGBT issues, Gallup concludes, "have undergone some of the most dramatic shifts in public opinion—including gay marriage, which hardly even registered as a goal for gay rights activists of the 1970s."

Source: Gallup, Gallup First Polled on Gay Issues in '77. What Has Changed?

Most Americans Support LGBT Protections

Most Americans agree: there should be nondiscrimination protections for the LGBT population. Fully 69 percent of the public favors "laws that would protect gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing," finds a PRRI survey.

The majority of every religious group, men, women, every age group, and every race and Hispanic origin group supports laws against LGBT discrimination. By religious affiliation, support ranges from a high of 90 percent among Unitarians to a low of 53 percent among Jehovah Witnesses. By party affiliation, 79 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of Republicans favor such laws. Good news, right?

But dig a little deeper into the PRRI survey results, and a contradiction emerges. Another question in the survey asks Americans whether they favor or oppose religiously-based service refusals of the LGBT population—in other words, can a small business owner refuse to provide products or services to the LGBT population if doing so violates the owner's religious beliefs. Fifty-seven percent of the public opposes service refusals. Note that this 57 percent is smaller than the 69 percent of the public that favors nondiscrimination protections. A PRRI analysis of the results finds that fully 23 percent of Americans hold contradictory views—they favor nondiscrimination laws to protect the LGBT population but would allow a small business owner to discriminate against the LBGT population based on the owner's religious beliefs.

Source; PRRI, Fifty Years After Stonewall: Widespread Support for LGBT Issues—Findings from American Values Atlas 2018

14% of Millennials Identify as LGBTQ

A large portion of the Millennial generation identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer, according to the latest survey from the GenForward Project at the University of Chicago. Overall, 14 percent of Millennials identify as LGBTQ. By race and Hispanic origin, here are the numbers...

Millennials who identify as LGBTQ

Asians: 9%

Blacks: 14%

Hispanics: 22%

Non-Hispanic Whites: 13%

These figures are higher than those found in other surveys. According to a 2016 Gallup survey, 7.3 percent of Millennials identify as LGBT. According to the 2016 General Social Survey, 6.9 percent of Millennials identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. According to the 2011–13 National Survey of Family Growth, 6.6 percent of women and 3.8 percent of men aged 25 to 34 report their sexual orientation as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. 

Source: GenForward, Millennial Attitudes on LGBT Issues: Race, Identity, and Experience