More gay couples are married in the US than you think
A new poll in the US suggests that more people are already in same-sex marriages than was previously estimated.
A recent Gallup poll estimated that nearly two million American adults are in a same-sex relationship – of whom an estimated 780,000 are married – amounting to 0.3% of the US population.
This has been seen as a reflection of the explosion in the number of states that have legalized same-sex marriage in recent years – with 37 states currently permitting same-sex weddings, up from just 10 in 2012.
Just 13 US states have still have a ban on same-sex marriage – all of which are currently subject to legal proceedings – and many courts have halted similar attempts to block to gay marriage on a state level.
According to the poll, around 0.3% of adults in the United States are married to a same-sex spouse and an additional 0.5% identify as being in a same-sex domestic partnership.
This equates to around 390,000 same-sex married couples in the United States and about 600,000 domestic partnership couples out of a total of 990,000 couples – or about 2 million adults.
Gallup’s estimate is larger than the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which in 2013 put the total number of same-sex couples at roughly 727,000. Of this group, more than 250,000 reported they were married.
However, the past two years has seen a dramatic upswing in the number of states recognising same-sex weddings.
The Supreme Court heard arguments this week in a case that could cement equality in all 50 states.
