LGBT identification rises to more than 5 percent in US: Gallup

The number of Americans who identify as LGBT has increased slightly in recent years, according to a new poll. 

The Gallup poll released on Wednesday found people in the United States who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender stood at 5.6 percent in 2021, up from 4.5 percent in 2017.

Just over 86 percent of respondents said they are heterosexual or straight, and 7 percent chose not to answer a question about their sexual orientation. The percentage of Americans who declined to respond is also up from 2017, when it came in around 5 percent.

More than half of the Americans surveyed — 54 percent — who say they identify as LGBT are bisexual, the poll found. Just over 11 percent say they are transgender. Respondents were able to give multiple responses when describing their sexual identification, Gallup noted. 

Younger generations of Americans are increasingly likely to identify as LGBT, according to the survey. One in 6 young adults aged 18 to 23 said they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Nearly half of millennials who indicated they identify as LGBT say they are bisexual. 

The poll also found that women are more likely than men to identify as LGBT, and around 13 percent of political liberals, 4 percent of moderates and 2 percent of conservatives say they are LGBT. 

The Gallup poll was based conducted in 2020 with a random sample of 15,349 adults. It has a margin of error of 1 percentage point.