Around 1.6% of men in the United States identify as bisexual, based on recent survey data. That number has been climbing steadily over the past decade, and it varies dramatically by age. Among Gen Z men (born 1997–2004), the figure jumps to nearly 7%, while for Gen X and baby boomers it sits below 1%.
The Best Available Numbers
Different surveys produce slightly different estimates depending on how and when they ask the question. Gallup’s ongoing polling, which surveys hundreds of thousands of U.S. adults each year, found that 6% of men overall identify as LGBTQ+, with bisexual being one of several identities within that group. The General Social Survey, a long-running academic survey, puts the share of men identifying as bisexual at 1.6%. The CDC’s National Health Interview Survey, using data from 2013 to 2018, estimated 0.6% of men identified as bisexual, though that figure is now several years old and likely understates the current number given how quickly identification rates have been rising.
In the UK, the Office for National Statistics found that 1.1% of men identified as bisexual in 2024, while 2.9% identified as gay. This pattern, where more men identify as gay than bisexual, holds across most countries and age groups older than Gen Z.
The Generational Gap Is Enormous
The most striking finding across all the data is how much age matters. Gallup’s 2023 figures for men who identify as bisexual break down like this:
- Gen Z (born 1997–2004): 6.9%
- Millennials (born 1981–1996): 2.5%
- Gen X (born 1965–1980): 0.7%
- Baby boomers (born 1946–1964): 0.7%
Gen Z men are nearly ten times more likely to call themselves bisexual than Gen X or boomer men. They’re also the first generation of men where bisexual identification is more common than gay identification. Among older generations, men who identify as LGBTQ+ are most likely to say they’re gay rather than bisexual.
Women show the same generational trend but at even higher rates. More than one in five Gen Z women identify as bisexual. The gender gap is the main reason women report higher rates of LGBTQ+ identification overall.
Why the Numbers Keep Rising
Bisexual identification has roughly tripled in the U.S. population since the early 1990s. The General Social Survey found that 3.1% of all respondents (men and women combined) described themselves as bisexual in 1989–1994. By 2021, that figure had risen to 9.6%.
Researchers generally attribute this increase to greater social acceptance rather than an actual shift in how many people experience attraction to more than one gender. Younger people have grown up in an environment where bisexuality is a more visible and available identity, making them more willing to use the label. Older adults who may have similar patterns of attraction are less likely to describe themselves that way, whether because the term didn’t exist in their formative years, because of stigma, or simply because they settled into a relationship that made the label feel irrelevant.
Identity, Attraction, and Behavior Don’t Match Up
One of the most consistent findings in sexuality research is that far more people report same-sex attraction or experience than actually use a label like “bisexual” or “gay.” Across multiple national surveys in the U.S. and internationally, adults are two to three times more likely to say they’ve been attracted to someone of the same sex, or have had a same-sex sexual experience, than to identify as LGB. This gap is especially wide among men.
So the 1.6% or 6.9% figures capture only the men who actively choose the bisexual label. The number of men who experience some degree of attraction to more than one gender is almost certainly higher, possibly substantially so. Some of those men may identify as straight, some as gay, some as queer, and some may not use any label at all.
Health Disparities for Bisexual Men
Bisexual men face measurable health challenges compared to both straight and gay men. A large Canadian population study found that 21% of bisexual men reported a mood or anxiety disorder, compared to 8.9% of straight men. About 13% of bisexual men rated their mental health as fair or poor, double the rate among straight men. One in five bisexual men described their overall general health as fair or poor, roughly twice the rate of both straight and gay men.
Perhaps most striking, 57% of bisexual men reported at least some functional health difficulty (problems with mobility, pain, cognition, or similar areas), compared to 37% of straight men and 39% of gay men. Bisexual men aren’t just worse off than straight men; in many measures, they report worse outcomes than gay men as well. Researchers point to factors like lower rates of being “out,” less access to community support, and the stress of navigating stigma from both straight and gay peers.