About 9% of U.S. adults identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or something other than straight, according to a new poll. gallup.
This number is unchanged from 2024, but remains higher than the 7% who identified as LGBTQ between 2021 and 2023. The findings are based on combined data from more than 13,000 telephone interviews conducted nationwide in 2025.
Overall, 86% of adults were heterosexual, 9% were LGBTQ, and 5% declined to answer questions about sexual orientation or gender identity.
Bisexual people make up the largest proportion of the LGBTQ population. Approximately 5.3% of all U.S. adults (approximately 58.6% of LGBTQ respondents) identify as bisexual. Additionally, 1.6% identify as gay (17.4% of the LGBTQ community), 1.4% as lesbian (approximately 16%), and 1.1% as transgender (12.1%). Another 0.5% identify as another identity within the LGBTQ spectrum, such as queer or pansexual.
Since 2020, the number of people who identify as bisexual has increased sharply, with 3.1% of adults saying they are bisexual. Other LGBTQ identities have also been on the rise in recent years.
As with previous Gallup analyses, younger generations are driving the increase. Almost one in four adults (23%) between the ages of 18 and 29 identify as LGBTQ, and 16% of them identify as bisexual. In this age group, 3% identify as transgender, 2.9% as lesbian, and 2.5% as gay.
Among adults between the ages of 30 and 49, 10.4% identify as LGBTQ, including 5.6% bisexual, 2.1% gay, 1.5% lesbian, and 1.3% transgender. Identity declines rapidly among older Americans. Only 3.1% of people between the ages of 50 and 64 and 2.3% of people over 65 identify as LGBTQ. Less than 0.5% of adults over the age of 50 identify as transgender.
Women are more likely than men to identify as LGBTQ, primarily because women are more likely to identify as bisexual. Overall, 10.5% of women and 5.6% of men identify as LGBTQ. Among nonbinary respondents, 86.2% identify as LGBTQ.
Political affiliation also has a strong correlation with LGBTQ identity. About 14.2% of Democrats and 10.3% of independents identify as LGBTQ, compared to just 1.9% of Republicans. Gallup attributes this gap in part to partisan differences over same-sex marriage, anti-discrimination laws, and related rights issues.
People of color are slightly more likely to identify as LGBTQ than white adults. While 8.3% of white adults identify themselves as LGBTQ, this number rises to 9.9% for Black adults and 10.7% for Hispanic adults. This difference is primarily determined by bisexual identification rates. In terms of gender identity, 1.6% of Hispanic adults identify as transgender, compared to 1% of white adults and 0.7% of black adults.
Geography also plays a role. City residents are most likely to identify as LGBTQ at 10.9%, with 6.4% identifying as bisexual, 2% as gay, 1.8% as lesbian, and 1.2% as transgender.
By comparison, 8.7% of suburban residents identify as LGBTQ, compared to 7% of those living in small towns and rural areas. Notably, although overall LGBTQ identification rates remain low outside of urban areas, the percentage of small town and rural residents who identify as transgender (1.2%) is in line with the percentage of urban residents.
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
