The number of U.S. adults who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) increased over the past year to 10 million, or roughly 4.1 percent of the national adult population, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday evening.
Since 2012, that number has increased nearly from 8.3 million American adults. Gallup tracked 1.6 million people in this year’s annual survey and found 49,000 people described themselves at LGBT.
Among generational groups, those who were born between 1980 and 1988 – defined as millennials – were the only group that saw an uptick from 2015 to 2016. Millennials jumped from 6.7 percent to 7.2 percent this year – double that of any other generation. The number of those who identify as LGBT was significantly lower as the age of the respondent increased. Only 3.2 percent of Generation X, 2.4 percent of Baby Boomers and 1.4 percent of traditionalists identified as such in the survey.
More women associate themselves as a member of the LGBT community than men by a rate of 4.4 percent to 3.7 percent.
Among ethnic groups, those who do not identify as white, black, Hispanic or Asian reported the highest number: 6.3 percent. White males had the lowest number (3.6 percent) while Hispanics had the second-highest number (5.4 percent).
When looking at LGBT identification among income levels, the portion of those who identify decreases as income increases. Approximately 5.5 percent of those who make less than $35,000 identify and 3.7 percent of people who make $90,000 or more said they do.
As with religion, those who are highly religious were more than three times less likely to say yes in the survey. Less than 1-in-50 religious people said yes, while 7 percent of those who said they are not religious did.
The survey was conducted throughout 2016 with adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The margin of error each year was 0.1 percent with confidence at the 95 percent level.
