What is the percentage of the total population of the US that is LGBT?

Question

I've really been wondering about this for a while and it seems that wherever I look there are conflicting figures. I read somewhere that it was around 8%, then I looked somewhere else and the number was 4%.......

Oooh, if you have any figures from other countries OR if you know the general number (e.g. generally one person out of every 20 people identifies as either L*****n, g*y,bisexual or transgendered) you could let me know :)

Answer 1

Depends on who you ask.  To some religious people there are almost no g*y people, just people who think they're g*y because the devil deluded them; to some in the GLBT community almost everybody is g*y but they're in denial. The numbers seem to indicate something around 7-10 %

Answer 2

10%, like 1 out of 10 (that's what I read). But what about the ones in the closet?       Then there must be more than 10%...

Answer 3

Statistics are difficult to pin down. Some say 10% and others say closer to 2%. With so many still not out of the closet and identified as g*y there is really noway to tell accurately.

There have been various other surveys in the US that have tried to measure numbers of g*y people. An analysis of these surveys by the Human Rights Campaign came up with this conclusion:

"In the last three elections, the Voter News Service exit poll registered the g*y vote between 4 percent and 5 percent. While concluding that the Census 2000 under counted the total number of g*y or L*****n households, for the purposes of this study, we estimate the g*y and L*****n population at 5 percent of the total U.S. population over 18 years of age, (209,128,094). This results in an estimated total g*y and L*****n population of 10,456,405. A recent study of g*y and L*****n voting habits conducted by Harris Interactive determined that 30 percent of g*y and L*****n people are living in a committed relationship in the same residence. Using that figure, we suggest that 3,136,921 g*y or L*****n people are living in the United States in committed relationships in the same residence." 4

Answer 4

Ten percent.

Answer 5

Openly? I'd say eleven.

Closeted? I'd say triple the openly LGBT.

Answer 6

100 percent.

LMAO im just jokin.

80 percent.

Answer 7

between 2.6 and 10 percent in uk, but its a very personal question that some people wont answer so u could never get a true figure

Answer 8

The average ratio from several studies is 7.12 percent, with 9.37 percent of men and 4.87 percent of women exhibiting homosexuality.

In 1995, a survey (The prevalence of homosexual behavior and attraction in the United States, the United Kingdom and France: Results of national population-based samples - Sell, Wells, and Wypij) reported 6.27 percent of males and 3.6 percent of females in the United States having had sexual contact with someone of the same s*x in the previous 5 years.

A 1994 study (The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States - Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, Michaels) reported that the incidence rate of homosexual desire for men is 7.7 percent and 7.5 percent for women.

A 1993 study (The Janus Report on Sexual Behavior - Janus and Janus) found 9 percent of men and 5 percent of women were involved in frequent or ongoing homosexual experiences.

A 1990 study (Homosexuality/Heterosexuality by McWhirter, Sanders, and Reinisch) stated 13.95 percent of males and 4.25 percent of females had "extensive" or "more than incidental" homosexual experience.

The Indiana University Kinsey Reports (Sexual Behavior in the Human Male - Kinsey, Pomeroy, and Martin/Sexual Behavior in the Human Female - Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, and Gerhard) reported 10 percent of males being more or less exclusively homosexual and 2 percent to 6 percent of females being more or less exclusively homosexual.

Answer 9

There is no single number.

The difficulties in measuring such a thing are legion.  (Just consider if all the confused young folk who hang out here had to answer a 20 question survey...their heads would explode!)

So...you will have to surrender to an educated guess and give up on The Truth.

First, the "T" is almost never a part of serious studies across populations.

Second, the "B" is so slippery and ill-defined that it defies measurement completely.  In twenty years, think of how many happily married mothers are going to say "I was a L*****n during most of 2008.  It was college.  I was young."  

Which leaves you at G & L...most of the hardcore surveys come down to 4% to 7%, depending upon how you determine homosexuality.   If you simply ask people to self define, you get a slightly higher number.  If you try to prove sexual practice in action, you get a slightly lower number.  The freer and more open the society -- the higher both numbers are.

The most consistent number is 2%-4%  (2% worldwide.  4% US/Europe).  The most respected number is 7%.

The problem (in the US/Europe) with the 10% number is one of political power.  10% puts the g*y population at about par with the Latino and African American populations -- but g**s consistently fail to demonstrate anything even close to that kind of power in the voting booth or at the cash register.  You can hate it all you want to -- but money and votes don't lie.  If we are 10%, we sure don't act like it.  Objectively our political and economic power looks alot more like the Asian American power base.  Any guess at their % of the US population?  You guessed it -- 4%.