Facts about LGBTQ+ Families
Last Updated August 2026
The LGBTQ+ community at a glance
How many people identify as LGBTQ+ in the United States?
Research shows that 7.6% of Americans, or up to 20 million adults living in the United States, identify as LGBTQ+ (Jones, 2024).
How many people identify as transgender in the United States?
Research shows that 1% of Americans, or up to 2.6 million adults living in the United States, identify as transgender (Jones, 2024).
How many people identify as bisexual?
Research shows that 4.4% of U.S. adults, or up to 11 million adults living in the United States, identify as bisexual (Jones, 2024).
What do LGBTQ+ families look like?
Like other parents, LGBTQ+ parents are married, unmarried and cohabiting, separated or divorced, and single. There are intact families and blended families, and children who live between households.
Married
While the prevalence of marriage in the general population continues to decline, the number of same-sex married couples has increased significantly in the last decade as LGBTQ+ people gained the freedom to marry nationwide. Data from the Williams Institute shows that over 820,000 married same-sex couples live in the U.S. This figure is more than double the 390,000 same-sex couples who were married as of June 2015, when the Supreme Court extended marriage equality nationwide. About 17% of married same-sex couples are raising the householder’s biological, adopted, or stepchildren, compared to 10% of unmarried same-sex couples. (Sears, Cisneros, Mallory 2025).
Unmarried
According to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, roughly 551,000 same-sex couples are unmarried and living together. Married same-sex couples have outnumbered unmarried couples since 2015, the year the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v Hodges made marriage equality the law of the land. (Hernandez & Pham, 2024)
How many LGBTQ+ families are there?
2.6 million LGBTQ+ adults are parenting children under 18 (Wilson & Bouton, 2024). That’s about 18% of LGBTQ+ adults. Many of these children are being raised by a single LGBTQ+ parent or by a different-sex couple where one parent is bisexual.
Approximately 299,000 children under 18 are being raised by married same-sex couples (Sears, Cisneros, Mallory 2025), and 5 million children total are being raised by an LGBTQ+ parent (Wilson & Bouton, 2024).
How are LGBTQ+ families formed?
The legal and social climate for LGBTQ+ people has a direct impact on how LGBTQ+ people form families and become parents. Historically, in the face of an anti-LGBTQ+ legal and social climate, LGBTQ+ people have tended to come out later in life, oftentimes after having a different-sex relationship. As such, 78% of LGBTQ+ adults became parents from a current or previous different-sex relationship (Wilson & Bouton, 2024).
However, this trend is changing as the legal and social climate has become more accepting of LGBTQ+ people and same-sex relationships. Today, LGBTQ+ people are coming out earlier in life, and an increasing number of same-sex couples are planning and creating their families through assisted reproduction and surrogacy, as well as adoption and foster care. 63% of LGBTQ+ people planning families expect to use assisted reproduction, at-home insemination, surrogacy, foster care, or adoption to become parents (Family Equality 2019; Gates, Marriage and Family 2015).
More specifically, data from the Williams Institute finds that:
- 20% of LGBTQ+ adults become parents through the child of their partner/spouse
- 9% become parents through donor insemination
- 6% become parents through adoption
- 5% become parents through kinship care or legal guardianship
- 1% become parents through surrogacy
And 13% of LGBTQ+ adults become parents some other way.
Married same-sex couples with children are approximately eight times more likely than different sex couples with children to have fostered or adopted children; they are also more likely to have other relatives living with them including a parent or in-law, sibling, roommate, housemate, or non-relatives (Sears, Cisneros, Mallory 2025).
LGBTQ+ families at a glance
Where LGBTQ+ Families Live
The highest percentage of LGBTQ+ parents live in the South (31%), followed by the Midwest (26%), and West (19%) (Wilson & Bouton, 2024).
Family Composition
Looking at just LGBTQ+ parents of minors, the majority (61%) are cisgender bisexual women, followed by cisgender lesbian women (14%), cisgender bisexual men (11%), cisgender gay men (5%), trans men (4%), trans women (2%), and trans, gender nonconforming people (2%) (Wilson & Bouton, 2024).
The majority (53%) of partnered LGBTQ+ parents are partnered with a different gender, cisgender person — versus 47% who were partnered with the same gender (Wilson & Bouton, 2024).
There are also a lot of single parents — approximately 1 million LGBTQ+ parents, of the 2.6 million total, are single (Wilson & Bouton, 2024).
Race & Ethnicity
On average, LGBTQ+ people of color are more likely to be parents than white LGBTQ+ people (Wilson & Bouton, 2024):
- 28% of Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander LGBTQ+ adults are parents
- 25% of American Indian and Alaska Native LGBTQ+ adults are parents
- 23% of Black LGBTQ+ adults are parents
- 20% of Hispanic/Latinx LGBTQ+ adults are parents
- 17% of white LGBTQ+ adults are parents
- 12% of Asian LGBTQ+ adults are parents
Income
LGBTQ+ individuals and same-sex couples raising children have lower incomes than different-sex counterparts and higher levels of poverty. 33% of LGBTQ+ parents live in poverty compared to 21% of non-LGBTQ+ parents (Wilson & Bouton, 2024).
Discrimination against LGBTQ+ families
The LGBTQ+ community has seen considerable legal and social progress in recent years. However, anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination and social stigma remain.
Nondicrimination Protections
There is no comprehensive federal nondiscrimination law expressly protecting LGBTQ+ people and less than half of states have state nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people.
Laws Pertaining to LGBTQ+ Parents
Parenting and foster and adoption laws, practices, and procedures vary throughout the U.S., and many states do not have express protections for LGBTQ+ parents. Thus, depending on the law of a given state, LGBTQ+ parents may feel vulnerable to discrimination or retribution. This is especially true for transgender parents who have historically faced discrimination in the courts, custody disputes, foster care, and adoption, and a non-biological parent who does not have legally-established rights to her or his child.
Hate Crimes & Hostility
In the last few years, there has been a notable increase in hate crimes and hostility toward LGBTQ+ people.
