New analysis from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds the largest population of LGBT people—an estimated 706,000 adults—live in the New York metropolitan statistical area (MSA). The New York MSA is the most populous MSA in the country and includes Newark and Jersey City as well as cities in Pennsylvania.
Other populous metropolitan statistical areas for LGBT people include Los Angeles (523,000), Chicago (298,000), San Francisco (247,000), Miami (214,000), Dallas (211,000), Washington D.C. (209,000), Philadelphia (198,000), Atlanta (194,000), and Boston (186,000).
The highest percentage of LGBT people (6.7%) live in the San Francisco metropolitan area, which includes the larger Bay Area. Of the 55 metro areas studied, Pittsburg and Raleigh have the lowest percentage of people who are LGBT (3.3%).
“More than half of LGBT adults in the U.S. live in 55 urban areas that share economic and social ties between one or more cities and adjacent communities,” said Kerith J. Conron, Research Director at the Williams Institute. “Policy-makers in areas covered by each metropolitan statistical area should keep in mind that a large group of LGBT people live, work, or play in their cities and towns.”
The Williams Institute has created an interactive that provides downloadable demographic and socioeconomic data on the LGBT population in each of the 55 metropolitan areas studied and by state.