Census Data Shows more than 20 Million US Adults Identify as LGBTQ

According to a recent report from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), at least 20 million adults in the United States identify as LGBTQ, with 8 percent of respondents to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey saying they identify as LGBTQ. Additionally, 2 percent of respondents say their sexual orientation is something other than gay, lesbian, bisexual, or straight.

The survey also indicates that more than 2 million adults (more than 1 percent of US adults) identify as transgender, with another 2 percent of respondents noting they do not identify with being either cisgender or transgender.

This is the first time the Census Bureau asked Americans about sexual orientation and gender identity in a survey. Though the numbers are much higher than some previous estimates, HRC says that even these numbers are likely an underestimate in relation to the true size of the country’s LGBTQ community.

“LGBTQ+ people exist everywhere in the United States,” the HRC report states. “We are in every state, every zip code and every community. We live in apartments in big cities and in farmhouses in rural communities. We exist across races and ethnicities, incomes and experiences. Available demographic data from surveys of the United States population tells us this is the case. New data show that more people in the United States may be openly identifying as LGBTQ+ than ever before … Millions more could be another identity that is more expansive than these four terms.”

HRC’s Interim President Joni Madison issued a press release, noting the same points:

“This data shows what we’ve suspected: Our community is larger and more widespread than we could have known up to this point. We’re proud to bring this data to light and set the stage for a future where all the millions of LGBTQ+ people in America enjoy full legal and lived equality.”

Madison also gave a shout out to Biden and the Census Bureau for finally allowing the LGBTQ community to be counted in the survey, though the release also notes that there is a long way to go before the Census Bureau fully accounts for the community. The Bureau’s two largest surveys, the U.S. Census and the American Community Survey, do not ask questions about LGBTQ identity; therefore, the community loses out on significant federal funding.