Facebook Releases Data Indicating Roughly 4% Of U.S. Adults Are Openly LGB

Facebook Research released a report showing how Americans are using Facebook to come out as LGB (revealing some kind of same-sex attraction). The report indicates that there are differences over time and geography.

Currently, more than 6 million Americans have come out on Facebook (based on the criteria used in Figure 1). Since we only consider those who have expressed a same-gender attraction or list a custom gender on their Facebook profiles, it is likely that this figure is an underestimate of the total number of “out” Americans. Strikingly, of those who are out on Facebook, approximately 78% made this change to their profile since the beginning of 2012. While this figure may be somewhat conflated by growth in the number of people on Facebook, the sheer magnitude of this increase suggests that the LGBT movement has made significant strides in recent years.

The map at the top of this post shows that New York and Nevada are two states where people are more likely to be out as LGBT online.