New numbers just landed, and they’re the kind that change what you can argue in a room. The HRC Foundation analyzed 2.4 million U.S. Census Household Pulse responses and found that 25.6 million American adults are LGBTQ+ — 12% of the country, with 40 states plus D.C. coming in above 10%. Texas is 12.5%. Arizona is 13.3%. More than half the audience is under 35. Yes, it’s higher than Gallup’s 9%, and we break down exactly why (methodology, not a sudden shift) — because a pitch that explains the gap beats one that cherry-picks the bigger number.
Every so often a number lands that changes the conversation you’re able to have in a room. This is one of those.
The HRC Foundation has published a new analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey — and it puts the LGBTQ+ adult population at 25.6 million people, or roughly 12% of all U.S. adults. Forty states plus the District of Columbia come in above 10%.
If you’ve spent any time pitching LGBTQ+ marketing, you already know why that matters. The most common objection isn’t “we don’t want to reach that audience.” It’s “is it big enough to justify a line item?” That question just got a much shorter answer.
What the Analysis Actually Found
This isn’t a poll of a few thousand people. The HRC Foundation pooled 37 rounds of the Household Pulse Survey conducted between 2021 and 2024 — roughly 2.45 million responses. It’s a national, probability-based survey run by the Census Bureau, and it asked separate questions about sexual orientation and gender identity.
The headline findings:
- 25.6 million LGBTQ+ adults — 12.03% of the U.S. adult population.
- 40 states plus D.C. are above 10%. Not ten states. Forty.
- 53.8% of LGBTQ+ adults are 18–34. More than half the audience is in the demographic every brand says it’s trying to reach.
- Bisexual+ adults are the largest group — more than 7% of all U.S. adults, and roughly 65% of the LGBTQ+ population.
- About 21% of LGBTQ+ adults are transgender or gender-expansive — considerably higher than earlier estimates, which is a big part of why this study got picked up so widely.
- Hispanic adults make up 18% of the LGBTQ+ population, compared with 13% of the non-LGBTQ+ population.
HRC President Kelley Robinson put the takeaway plainly: “LGBTQ+ Americans are everywhere. There are 25 million of us across the country.”
The State-Level Numbers Are the Part to Screenshot
The national figure is quotable. The state breakdown is usable — because it takes apart the assumption that this audience lives in six coastal metros.
- Arizona — 13.34%
- Texas — 12.54%
- New Hampshire — 11.88%
- Georgia — 11.46%
- Ohio — 11.29%
- Pennsylvania — 11.14%
- Michigan — 10.95%
- North Carolina — 10.56%
Texas at 12.5% is more than one in eight adults. That’s not a niche you buy against as an afterthought — that’s a segment sitting inside your general-market plan whether you’ve named it or not.
We’ve been making this argument for years with the city-by-city work: LGBTQ+ audiences are in Columbus and Phoenix and Charlotte and the Research Triangle, and they’ve been underserved there precisely because everyone assumed they weren’t. Now there’s a Census-derived number attached to it.
About the Gap With Gallup — Cite Both, Explain the Difference
Here’s the part I’d ask you not to skip, because getting it wrong will cost you credibility in the exact meeting where you most need it.
Gallup’s most recent read puts LGBTQ+ identification at 9%, based on telephone interviews with 13,454 adults. HRC’s puts it at 12%. Those are both real numbers, and the gap between them is methodology, not a sudden shift in the population.
Three things drive it:
How the survey is administered. The Household Pulse Survey is self-administered online. Gallup’s is a live telephone interview. As HRC notes, self-administered surveys offer more privacy on sensitive questions — and privacy tends to raise disclosure. Some meaningful share of that three-point gap is simply people who will type an answer they wouldn’t say out loud to a stranger.
Which identities are counted, and how the question is phrased. Response options differ between instruments. Gender-expansive categories in particular get captured differently, which is part of why the transgender figure here runs higher than what most people are used to seeing.
Sample size and structure. 2.45 million pooled responses versus 13,454. Both are methodologically sound; they’re built for different things. Gallup’s annual cadence is excellent for trend lines. The Pulse pooling is what makes reliable state-level estimates possible at all.
Notably, the two agree on the shape of the population even where they disagree on the size: young-skewing, bisexual+-majority, and growing generation over generation. Gallup has adults under 30 at 23% LGBTQ+. HRC has nearly 30% of Gen Z. Different instruments, same direction.
So use both. Lead with 12% and 25.6 million when you’re sizing the opportunity. Note Gallup’s 9% as the conservative floor. A pitch that presents both and explains the difference is far more persuasive than one that cherry-picks the bigger figure and gets caught.
This Audience Shows Up — And That’s Measurable Too
Population size is one argument. Engagement is the one that usually closes.
HRC’s 2026 electoral polling found 92% of LGBTQ+ voters say they will definitely vote, against 68% of non-LGBTQ+ voters. More than 59% had contacted an elected official in the past year, versus 31% of non-LGBTQ+ voters. More than 53% had donated to a campaign, versus 26%.
Read that as a marketer rather than a political operative and it says something specific: this is a high-participation, high-action audience. People who contact officials and donate to causes are the same people who leave reviews, share posts, show up to events, and tell their networks about brands that showed up for them. That’s the behavior underneath the loyalty numbers everyone quotes — and it’s why engagement rates on LGBTQ+ content consistently outperform general-market benchmarks.
The Uncomfortable Footnote
There’s a reason this analysis feels significant beyond its findings, and it’s worth naming directly.
The Household Pulse Survey was one of the last major federal data collections still asking a gender identity question. Roughly 360 federal data collections have had sexual orientation or gender identity measures removed in the past year — including about 338 that dropped gender identity questions specifically.
What that means practically: a study like this one may not be repeatable. The instrument that produced these state-level estimates is being dismantled, and there isn’t an obvious replacement at this scale. When the public data disappears, the ability to say “here is how many of us there are, and here is where” disappears with it — and that’s not an abstract loss. It’s how budgets get justified, how services get funded, how communities get counted.
We don’t have the luxury of waiting for a better data environment. So the practical response is to use this analysis while it’s current, cite it properly, and support the independent research infrastructure — the Williams Institute, Gallup, GLAAD, HRC Foundation — that will be carrying this load going forward.
How to Actually Use This
If you’re building a case internally or pitching a client, here’s where this number does the most work:
- In the sizing slide. 25.6 million adults, 12% of the market. Compare it to segments your organization already funds without argument — it will hold up well.
- In the geography conversation. Pull the state figure for wherever the client operates. “Your home market is 11% LGBTQ+” lands differently than a national average.
- In the age conversation. 53.8% of this audience is 18–34. If there’s a youth-reach objective anywhere in the brief, this segment is already central to it.
- In the bisexual+ conversation. Nearly two-thirds of the LGBTQ+ population is bisexual+ — a group most creative work still doesn’t speak to directly. That’s an open lane.
- With the methodology note attached. Always. It’s what separates a marketer who knows the research from one who found a stat.
Where Pink Media Lands
We’ll be folding this into the 2026 LGBTQ+ Marketplace Guide as the new baseline population figure, alongside Gallup’s for the trend line. It’s the strongest sizing data we’ve had in years, and it arrived at a moment when the alternative was going to be estimates built on estimates.
The number does one thing well and it’s worth being precise about what: it establishes that this audience is large enough and geographically distributed enough to plan against seriously. It doesn’t tell you how to reach them. That’s still the work — content in the places this community actually spends time, sustained across the year rather than compressed into June, in a voice that reads as one of us rather than a brand visiting.
If you’re building a 2027 plan and want to talk through what 12% looks like in your specific markets, we’d welcome the conversation. You can reach us through PinkMedia.LGBT.
Authentic LGBTQ+ engagement, 24/7, 365 days a year — that’s what Pink Media is built for.
