About 31.6% of Americans identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender live in 14 southern states, a larger LGBT population than in the three other major U.S. regions. A UCLA research center analyzes Gallup survey data from earlier years to derive a total estimate of 11.34 million LGBT people in the country: 3.6 million in the South, 3.0 million in the West, 2.4 million in the Northeast and 2.1 million in the Midwest.
Florida (at 4.6% of the state population) and Georgia (4.5%) have relatively larger LGBT populations than other southern states, according to the UCLA estimates. Alabama has the lowest share of LGBT residents in the region, at 3.1%.