As per recent the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey data, the number of same-sex couple households in the U.S. has surpassed 1 million for the first time. There were more than 1.2 million same-sex couple households across the country in 2021, up from 540,000 in 2008, an increase of 120%.
About 710,000 of the same-sex couple households were married, and about 500,000 were unmarried.
The number of married same-sex households started to outnumber unmarried same-sex households in 2016, following the Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 Obergefell vs. Hodges ruling, which effectively legalized gay marriage across the U.S.
The release of this new data coincides with the advancement of landmark legislation that codifies federal protection for marriages of same-sex couples. Hawaii has the highest percentage of same-sex couple households of any state, at 1.4%, followed by Oregon and Delaware, both at 1.3%, the Census Bureau data reveals. The District of Columbia, however, blows them all out of the water at 2.5%. South Dakota has the lowest percentage of same-sex couple households of any state, at 0.4%, followed by Kansas, Mississippi, Idaho, North Dakota, and Montana, which are all at 0.5%.
