These analyses rank 47 large Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) that can be matched in the two data sources. For example, comparing rankings of states by the proportion of same-sex couples using Census 2010 data to rankings of states by the percent of adults who identify as LGBT using Gallup data, the top ten states in both rankings have seven states in common while the ten lowest-ranked states have six states in common. While measures of same-sex couples and LGBT identity are not strictly comparable, studies do show that geographic patterns of same-sex couples are similar to those of the LGBT population. The rankings compare two different measures: the proportions of cohabiting same-sex couples and the proportions of adults who identify as LGBT. The Census data are used to rank metro areas by the number of same-sex couples per 1,000 households and the Gallup data rank them by the proportion of adults who identify as LGBT.
These analyses compare rankings of the most populous metropolitan areas derived from the 2012-2014 Gallup Daily tracking data with rankings derived more than twenty years ago from 1990 US Census data. The 1990 Census data represent the earliest historical data with sufficient sample sizes to consider geographic patterns of at least a subset of the LGBT population, same-sex couples who are residing together in the same household. However, data from the US Census that identifies same-sex couples have been available since 1990. The lack of historical data that identify LGBT individuals makes assessments of how the geographic patterns of the LGBT population in the US have changed over time difficult. These data now provide sufficient sample sizes to estimate the proportion of adults who identify as LGBT by state and, most recently, by large metropolitan areas. In 2012, Gallup added a question to its Daily Tracking survey, which interviews approximately 1,000 adults in the US every night and asks respondents, “Do you, personally, identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender?” Since then, more than 374,000 adults have been interviewed. Infographics Visualizations of our researchĭata that allow for analyses of the geographic distribution of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population across geographic areas in the United States have only very recently become available.
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