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Increasing numbers of population-based surveys in the United States and across the world include questions designed to measure sexual orientation and gender identity. Adding these questions to more national, state, and local data sources is critical to developing research that enables a better understanding of the understudied LGBT community. The surveys highlighted in this report demonstrate the viability of sexual orientation and gender identity questions on large national population-based surveys. Understanding the size of the LGBT population is a critical first step to informing a host of public policy and research topics.An estimated 19 million Americans (8.2%) report that they have engaged in same-sex sexual behavior and nearly 25.6 million Americans (11%) acknowledge at least some same-sex sexual attraction. Estimates of those who report any lifetime same-sex sexual behavior and any same-sex sexual attraction are substantially higher than estimates of those who identify as LGB.Conversely, gay men comprise substantially more than half of gay and bisexual men in seven of the nine surveys. Bisexuals comprise more than half of the lesbian and bisexual population among women in eight of the nine surveys considered in the brief. Women are substantially more likely than men to identify as bisexual.Among adults who identify as LGB, bisexuals comprise a slight majority (1.8% compared to 1.7% who identify as lesbian or gay).This implies that there are approximately 9 million LGBT Americans, a figure roughly equivalent to the population of New Jersey.An estimated 3.5% of adults in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and an estimated 0.3% of adults are transgender.The brief concludes with estimates of the size of the LGBT population in the United States. This research brief discusses challenges associated with collecting better information about the LGBT community and reviews eleven recent US and international surveys that ask sexual orientation or gender identity questions. Increasing numbers of population-based surveys in the United States and across the world include questions that allow for an estimate of the size of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population. Infographics Visualizations of our research.
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Survey Measures How to ask sexual orientation and gender identity questions.Data Interactives Customizable visualizations of our data.LGBT FAQs Find answers to our most frequently asked questions.