U.S. Census says same-sex households now exceed 1 million

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With a final vote on the controversial Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA) now pending in the U.S. Senate, the Census Bureau has issued a timely report on the status of same-sex households in America.

That study, based on recent data from the America Community Survey, found that such households are now thriving.

There were about 1.2 million same-sex households in 2021, up slightly from the nearly one million revealed by similar data in 2019, according to Zachary Scherer, a statistician in the Census Bureau’s division of Social, Economic and Housing Statistics.

In addition to that growth in the prevalence of same-sex households, Scherer found that in many categories of information same-sex couples were actually better off than their opposite-sex counterparts.

The Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA) is an attempt to codify into federal law the protections for same-sex marriage that were previously guaranteed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.

That decision required all states to recognize same-sex marriages under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Following the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, however, Justice Clarence Thomas hinted that the High Court’s new conservative majority might need to revisit Obergefell v. Hodges as well.

A version of the RFMA passed the U.S. House by a vote of 267 to 157 in July, making it the most pro-LGBTQ vote in Congressional history.

That measure also passed a procedural vote in the Senate to end debate on Nov. 16 by a 62-to-37 margin, with a dozen Republicans joining the majority Democrats to advance the proposal.

A final vote on the RFMA is expected in the Senate between now and Christmas.

The Census Bureau’s data collection effort on same-sex couples is incomplete, Scherer admits, because its American Community Survey does not identify all couples living together since it only collects information about each household member’s relationship to the owner of the home, rather than about the relationships among all household members.

But the ACS does provide a glimpse into how key demographic and economic characteristics of same-sex and opposite-sex couples differ.

Of the 1.2 million same-sex couple households revealed by the ACS in 2021, roughly 710,000 were married, while about 500,000 were not.

The average age of householders in same-sex couples who were married (48.9 years) was lower than in opposite-sex married couples (52.8 years).

But the average age of same-sex householders in unmarried couples (42 years) was higher than in opposite-sex unmarried couples (39.9 years).

In general, the Census found that same-sex couples were better educated than opposite-sex couples.

Both partners had at least a bachelor’s degree, Scherer notes, in a larger share of same-sex couples (nearly 30 percent) than in opposite-sex unmarried couples (18 percent).

But some things never change, he adds. Despite their educational attainment, the median household income for female same-sex couples was $92,470 compared to $116,800 for male same-sex households.

The Census survey also found that a larger share of same-sex couples were inter-racial (nearly 32 percent) compared to opposite-sex couples (18.4 percent).

Finally, the survey found that the District of Columbia still had the highest percentage of same-sex couple households (at 2.5 percent) of any state or state equivalent, although that figure indicated a sharp decline from a high of 7.1 percent found in Washington in 2019.

In 2010, only 46 percent of Americans approved of same-sex marriage, according to the non-partisan research group NORC at the University of Chicago.

But the American Values Survey by the Public Religion Research Institute in 2020 found that 70 percent of Americans now support gay marriage.

The Census’ ACS is a nationwide survey designed to provide timely and reliable data on American demographic, social, economic and housing characteristics.

The survey has an annual sample size of about 3.5 million addresses polled throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

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2 Comments

  • Verlo November 23, 2022 at 6:30 pm Reply

    Leftist B.S. propaganda spread by dishonest news organizations. Another reason to not trust C.V.D.

    • KA November 24, 2022 at 7:47 am Reply

      So now the Census is “fake news?” Really? Let’s just hope you’re not breeding.

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