The Centers for Disease Control issued a report yesterday stating that less than 3% of the nation’s population identify as something other than heterosexual. The 2013 CDC National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) interviewed over 34,000 people about their sexual orientation. Based upon the survey results, the CDC estimated that there are approximately 5.6 million Americans who identify as gay or lesbian or 1.6% of the US population, .7% of the survey respondents identified as bisexual, .6% of participants refused to answer and .4% answered they did not know their sexual orientation. The survey did not include transgender in the survey question, but .2% of survey participants responded “something else.”
Gary Gates of the UCLA Williams Institute estimated that between 5.2 million and 9.5 million people identify as LGBT. The Gates analysis looked at four national surveys: 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth; 2008-2012 General Social Survey; 2014 Gallup Daily Tracking Survey, and the 2013 National Health Interview Survey officially released yesterday.
The full NHIS survey results http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_02/sr02_169.pdf .
UCLA Williams Institute Report:
http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/lgbt-demogs-sep-2014.pdf
All surveys like this have to be taken with a grain of salt due to fact that LGBTQI people remain in the closet, even when they are assured that their responses will be held confidentially. I have several friends who arr not even out to their doctors.