More Female Than Male Same-Sex Couple Households in the United States in 2024

The increase in same-sex couple households was driven by growth in both married and, to a lesser extent, unmarried couple households.

For example, in 2024 there were roughly 836,000 married same-sex couple households, up from about 392,000 in 2005. Unmarried same-sex couple households saw a more modest increase, from about 385,000 to 551,000.

Estimates of married and unmarried same-sex couple households in 2005 were not significantly different from one another.

The number of both married and unmarried female same-sex couple households grew more dramatically during this period – flipping the sex ratio of same-sex couple households.

In 2005, male same-sex couple households outnumbered female same-sex couple households. In 2024, female same-sex couple households exceeded male same-sex couple households among both married and unmarried couple households.

Female same-sex married couple households more than doubled from about 178,000 in 2005 to about 450,000 in 2024. In contrast, the number of male same-sex married couple households grew more modestly, from around 214,000 to about 386,000.

Among key findings in 2024:

• Householders in same-sex marriages were younger on average (49.0 years) than those in opposite-sex marriages (53.2), but older on average than those in same-sex unmarried (40.6) and opposite-sex unmarried (40.1) couple households.
• Both partners in married same sex-couple households (60.8%) were more likely than those in married opposite-sex couple households (49.8%) to be employed.
• The median annual household income of female same-sex couples ($108,500) was less than of male same-sex couples ($140,500). Yet the share of female same-sex (64.2%) and male same-sex (64.7%) couple households with both partners employed did not differ significantly.
• Both partners had at least a bachelor’s degree in a larger share of same-sex (32.5%) than opposite-sex (19.1%) unmarried couple households.
• A larger share of same-sex (31.3%) than opposite-sex (19.5%) married couple households were interracial.
• The District of Columbia (3.2%) had the highest percentage of same-sex couple households of any state or state equivalent.

The ACS does not identify all couples living together because it only collects information about each household member’s relationship to the householder, rather than about the relationships among all household members.

Information on ways the Census Bureau has changed how it collects information about same-sex couples is available here. Additional information on same-sex couples is available in America Counts stories on county-level male and female same-sex couple households, interracial couples and coupled households with children.