About 21% of Generation Z Americans who have reached adulthood — those ages 18 to 25 — identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual, according to a recent Gallup poll.
This is about double the number compared to millennials at about 10.5%, and the gap increases compared to older generations, according to Gallup. About 4.2% of Generation X (born 1965 to 1980) and about 2.6% of Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964) identify as LGBT, according to Gallup. Only 0.8% of those born before 1946— Traditionalists — identify as LGBT, the Gallup poll says. (RELATED: POLL: 1 In 6 Adults In The Youngest Generation Identify As LGBT)
LGBT flag (Photo: SAUL LOEB/AF/Getty Images)
The percentage of Gen Z who identify as LGBT has doubled since 2017 when the poll was last conducted among those born between 1997 to 1999, according to Gallup. Only about 10.5% of Generation Z’ers who reached adulthood identified as LGBT in the 2017 poll, which means young Gen Z members are more likely to identify as LGBT than their older counterparts, according to Gallup.
About 15% of Gen Z adults say they’re bisexual, making it the most common identification, compared to 6% of millennials and less than 2% of Gen X members. Bisexuality is the most common among LGBT Americans overall as well, and women are more likely than men to identify with it, according to Gallup.
Due to the wide disparities of those who identify with LGBT are attributed to age, it’s expected that more than 10% of Americans will make up LGBT populations in the future. The number of Americans who identify with LGBT overall has grown in the last year than over the last 10, according to Gallup.
According to a Gallup poll released in 2021, a majority of Republicans in the U.S. are supportive of legalized gay marriage.
55 percent of Republicans said that same-sex marriages should be recognized as valid by law, according to the poll, conducted in May 2021. Legal gay marriage is supported by 83% of Democrats, 73% of independents and 70% of Americans as a whole, the poll said.