(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A recent report revealed that Washington, D.C., had the highest percentage of LGBT individuals per capita, making it the gayest place in the country.
According to a study by the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, 14.3% of the present population of the District of Columbia openly charted somewhere on the LGBT spectrum.
Oregon, Delaware, Vermont and New Hampshire all trailed behind the nation’s capitol at 7%.
The total estimated population of LGBT individuals in America is 13.9 million, or 5.5% of the country’s total population.
By overall population, the data unsurprisingly correlated with the size of the size of the state, making D.C.’s outlier status all the more noteworthy.
“In terms of the number of LGBT adults, the top states with the largest number of LGBT adults are also the states with the largest overall populations, except for Washington, which is 13th in terms of overall adult population and 10th in terms of the adult LGBT population,” the study read.
The study estimated that 35.9% LGBT individuals lived in the South, 24.5% in the West, 18.5% in the Northeast and 21.1% in the Midwest.
However, the South’s standing likely was a factor if its size rather than its cultural proclivities. States with the lowest percentage of LGBT population included West Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama.
Young adults from ages 18-24 were more likely to identify as LGBT, with nearly one in every six people in the age group claiming “gay” status.
There was a vast decrease in the LGBT population by age, with those 65 and older only taking up 1.8% of the total group, or 924,300.
The Williams Institute performed the study in order to examine policy effects on the LGBT population.
They performed a similar study on transgender youth throughout the country, with a more specific view on the effects of laws on transgender youth.
The study estimated the number of transgender teens affected by the increased number of laws from 2023.
