There’s a lot of news these days about LGBTQIA+ people being left out of the Census. It’s true, the U.S. Census does not ask about sexual orientation, which would be extremely useful. This information is used for everything from social science to marketing to budgeting for services. However, the decennial Census (every 10 years) and the the American Community Survey (every 1 or 5 years) both look at the number of same-sex couples living together. This can give us some insights about the 887,456 same-sex couples living together in the United States. The 2020 US Census will still include this question. The controversy pertained to including questions about sexual orientation, rather than the composition of a household.
So, what do we know?
- Of 887,456 same-sex couples living together in the US, 54.9% of them are married.
- 23.3% of female same-sex couples in the US have children, compared to 9.5% of male same-sex couples.
- The male couples in this data set are a bit more likely to be interracial, with 18.1%, compared to 13.9% of female couples. However, a higher percentage of female couples in the set are African American (9.8 versus 5.5)
- Unsurprisingly, California is the state with the most same-sex couples, with 128,111.
- The state of Pennsylvania is home to an estimated 32,451 same-sex couples, and 53.7% of them are married. Out of all the states, PA has the 6th highest population of same-sex couples!
- The Pittsburgh metro area is home to 1,506 male couples and 1,483 female couples living together.
Of course, this doesn’t give us any idea of how many of us single queerios there are, or even how these people identify, which is information that we probably won’t get until the next Census in 2030.
This article originally appeared on QueerPgh.com. This article is preserved as a part of the Q Archives project. Please consider donating to help preserve Pittsburgh’s Queer history.