Recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that a smaller number of high school-aged youths in the U.S. are identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB).
This decrease appears to be particularly noticeable among young women. According to the CDC’s Youth Risk Survey of high school students in grades 9 through 12 for the year 2025, there is a significant reduction in LGB identification across all grades compared to two years prior, as highlighted in a report by San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge.
Seniors, who are generally 17 to 18 years old, recorded the highest LGB identification at 16 percent, though this marks a two percentage point decline from 2023.
Every grade experienced a lower rate of LGB identification in 2025 compared to 2023, with younger students showing more pronounced declines. Specifically, 9th graders, aged 14 and 15, had the lowest identification rates, which was also the greatest drop from the previous years. For instance, 17 percent of 9th graders identified as LGB in 2023, while only 11 percent did in 2025.
Twenge remarked that this trend appears quite drastic, emphasizing that the decline seems to be almost exclusively among girls.
In 2023, 27 percent of the surveyed women identified as LGB, compared to just 9 percent of the men. By 2025, the percentage dropped to 22 percent for females and 7 percent for males.
Interestingly, from 2015 to 2021, the number of high school girls identifying as LGB surged by 128 percent, while the number of boys identifying as LGB nearly doubled over the same period, increasing by 99 percent up to 2023.
This most recent decline in identification appears particularly driven by 9th grade girls, whose LGB identification nearly halved, falling from 30 percent in 2021 to 17 percent in 2025. In contrast, senior girls showed a minor decrease from 28 percent in 2023 to 25 percent in 2025.
The notable shift mostly stems from a decrease in girls identifying as bisexual. Notably, while 26 percent of 9th grade girls identified as bisexual in 2021, that number plummeted to 13 percent by 2025, as Twenge pointed out.
Furthermore, the underclassmen from 2023, particularly those in 9th and 10th grades, exhibited less than a two-point drop, as opposed to the upperclassmen in 11th and 12th grades, who registered declines in 2025. This suggests that the decrease is mainly due to newer students not identifying as LGB, rather than a shift among those who had previously identified.
In looking at sexual orientation and behaviors, Twenge highlighted that self-identification of sexual orientation doesn’t entirely correlate with actual behavior, including the rates of same-sex partnerships among sexually active teens.
For instance, while boys are showing a gradual rise in same-sex partners—now over 10 percent—girls are more prominently having same-sex relationships at over 20 percent, although they’ve also experienced nearly a 10 percent decline in such partnerships since 2021.
Twenge noted the data doesn’t allow for predictions about future trends, nor can she draw concrete conclusions on why 9th grade girls are identifying as LGB at lower rates than their older counterparts.
