More than one in five Generation Z adults now identify as LGBT, new data shows, including nearly 30% of Gen Z women.
About 22% of young adults who were aged 18 to 26 last year self-identify as LGBT, according to a poll released Wednesday by Gallup.
This is higher than the nearly one in 10 millennials — those aged 27 to 42 — who identify as LGBT, and even higher than the 5% of Generation X, 2% of baby boomers, and 1% of the Silent Generation who identify as such.
“Overall, each younger generation is about twice as likely as the generation that preceded it to identify as LGBTQ+,” reads the report.
Meanwhile, the general population of adults who identify as LGBT hit 7.6% last year, an all-time high, while 85.6% say they are straight or heterosexual.
Back in 2012, the percentage of those who identified as LGBT sat at just 3.5%.
The increase is driven in part by Gen Z women, almost 30% of whom identify as LGBT, mostly bisexual, according to Jeffrey Jones, a senior editor at Gallup.
“That’s where a lot of the growth seems to be happening,” Jones told NBC News.
A large chunk of millennial women, 9% also identify as bisexual.
Bisexual identities were the largest LGBT group, making up more than half, 57% of those who identified as LGBT and 4.4% of adults overall, according to Gallup.
Gay men were next, making up 18.1% of those who identified as LGBT. Lesbians made up 15.1%, and trans-identifying people made up 11.8%, according to the poll.
Pansexual and asexual identities were volunteered by less than 2% of adults who said they were LGBT.
Overall, 8.5% of women and 4.7% of men identified as LGBT, the survey found, making women nearly twice as likely to identify as LGBT.
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Critics have also sounded the alarm in recent years about an increasing number of teen girls identifying as transgender and seeking out transgender medical services with permanent effects.
Teen girls are many times more likely to seek out transgender medical services than teen boys, according to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).
Gallup surveyed about 12,000 Americans aged 18 and up over the phone.
“The percentage of U.S. adults who consider themselves something other than heterosexual has more than doubled since Gallup first asked about sexual orientation and transgender identity in 2012,” Gallup’s report says.
“These changes have been led by younger Americans,” the report says, adding that if the current trends continue, it is likely that those who identify as LGBT will top 10% of all adults in the next 30 years.
