Men in same-sex couples don’t always live in the same parts of the country as women in same-sex couples, according to 2020 Census data that show where same-sex couple households live within each state by sex.

County-level maps show higher percentages of both types of same-sex couples in Florida, the Northeast and on the West Coast.

Overall, female same-sex couples made up 0.9% of U.S. coupled households and male same-sex couples made up an additional 0.8% of U.S. coupled households in 2020. For both sexes, these coupled households were often in and around the population centers of each state (Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1. Female-Female Married and Unmarried Couple Households as a Percentage of All Coupled Households: 2020

Figure 2. Male-Male Married and Unmarried Couple Households as a Percentage of All Coupled Households: 2020

County-level maps show higher percentages of both types of same-sex couples in Florida, the Northeast and on the West Coast. Counties in those regions also had the highest number of same-sex couples and counties with the highest percentage of same-sex coupled households.

Table 1. Top 10 U.S. Counties With the Largest Number of Female-Female Couple Households: 2020

Table 2. Top 10 U.S. Counties With the Largest Number of Male-Male Couple Households: 2020

Where Female and Male Same-Sex Couples Live Varies

In 2020, Los Angeles County, California, had the highest number of both female and male same-sex couples.

In both Los Angeles and Cook County, Illinois, there were more male-male than female-female coupled households.

Also heading the top-10 list with the most male and female same-sex couples: Maricopa County, Arizona; Harris County, Texas; King County, Washington; and San Diego County, California.

Four counties were in the top 10 only on the female-female couples list: Kings County, New York; Alameda County, California; Clark County, Nevada; and Bexar County, Texas.

Four counties only appeared on the male-male list: New York County, New York; San Francisco County, California; Broward County, Florida; and Riverside County, California.

As expected, most of the counties in the top 10 list had large populations.

Where Female and Male Same-Sex Couples Were Concentrated

While the top 10 list of counties with the highest number of female and male same-sex couples were similar in 2020, counties with the highest share of same-sex couples differed.

Los Angeles County, for example, fell out of the top 10 lists for highest share of both female and male same-sex couples. But San Francisco County was No. 1 for male-male couples (5.9%).

Table 3. Top 10 U.S. Counties With the Largest Share of Female-Female Couple Households: 2020

Table 4. Top 10 U.S. Counties With the Largest Share of Male-Male Couple Households: 2020

No counties in California were in the top 10 for share of female-female couples. Hampshire County, Massachusetts, topped the list (3.9% of all coupled households were female-female), followed by Multnomah County, Oregon, (2.8%).

A few counties landed in the top 10 for both female and male same-sex couples but not always in the same spot.

The District of Columbia had the second biggest share of male-male households (5.7%) but was No. 9 for female-female couples (2.3%). The share of male couples was more than double the percentage of female couples in D.C., even though they were both in the top 10.

In Richmond City, Virginia, 2.7% of coupled households were female-female and 2.5% were male-male. Yet, the city ranked third for female and ninth for male same-sex couples.

This review of geographic variation builds on a recent Census report, which compared the characteristics of spouses in opposite-sex and same-sex married couples and also looked at the characteristics by sex of the couple. It also expands on a previous America Counts story, which explored the share of same-sex households in select cities.

Amara Jones-Myers, a participant in the 2024 American Economic Association Summer Program, is a student at Dartmouth College.

Lydia Anderson is a family demographer in the Census Bureau’s Fertility and Family Statistics Branch.

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The 2022 American Community Survey estimated there were 1.3M same-sex couple households in the U.S., and of them, 58% (740,523) were married couples.

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Where Do Male and Female Same-Sex Couples Live?