7.2 Percent of U.S. Adults Identify as LGBT

A total of 7.2 percent of U.S. adults identified as LGBT in 2022, a new record high. Gen Z, newly added in the Gallup survey's 2020 edition, is the gayest generation in terms of self-identification. Almost 20 percent of those born between 1997 and 2004 identified as LGBT, compared with around 11 percent of Millennials.

While scientists believe that the share of LGBT individuals has not actually changed over time, younger people in the U.S. are more likely to be openly gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Even within the generation of Millennials, defined as those born between 1981 and 1996, self-identification quotas rose in the past years. In 2014, only 6.3 percent of Millennials had said they identified as LGBT.

For older generations, levels of self-identification did not change majorly in the past decade. The Gallup survey question did not ask respondents to identify as other sexes, sexual identities or sexual orientations like intersex, asexual or queer.