A total of 7.2 percent of adults in the United States identified as LGBTQ in 2022 a Gallup poll shows.

While that’s just a small increase from 2021 numbers - 7.1 percent - the 2022 Gallup data reflects an overall upward trend. In 2012, when the analytics giant began measuring LGBTQ identification, only about 3.5 percent of adults self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or something other than heterosexual and cisgender (meaning they identify with the sex they were assigned at birth).

Researchers credit the younger generations - especially those born between 1997 and 2004, or Generation Z - for the continuous increase.

Nearly 20 percent of Gen Z adults identified as LGBTQ. That rate is considerably lower (11.2 percent) among millennials (adults born between 1981 and 1996). Only 3.3 percent of Generation X adults, those born between 1965 and 1980 identified as LGBTQ. (DPA)