WASHINGTON — If the District sometimes seems like the country’s capital of same-sex domesticity, the Census Bureau has the numbers to back up the impression. About 3.2% of D.C. households were same-sex couple households in 2024, the highest share of any state or state equivalent and roughly triple the national rate, according to Census Bureau data released this spring.
The bureau’s 2024 state tables, drawn from the American Community Survey, estimate 10,445 same-sex couple households among the District’s 329,687 households. Nationally, about 1.0% of households — roughly 1.4 million — were same-sex couples.
No state came especially close. Oregon was second at 1.9%, followed by Vermont at 1.7% and Maine at 1.6%. The bureau cautions that state estimates may not be statistically different from one another, but the District’s lead, with a standard error of 0.3 percentage points, is wide.
| Area | Percent | Standard error |
|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 3.2 | 0.3 |
| Oregon | 1.9 | 0.1 |
| Vermont | 1.7 | 0.2 |
| Maine | 1.6 | 0.2 |
| Rhode Island | 1.5 | 0.2 |
| Washington | 1.5 | 0.1 |
| Massachusetts | 1.4 | 0.1 |
| Delaware | 1.4 | 0.2 |
| Nevada | 1.4 | 0.1 |
| Colorado | 1.3 | 0.1 |
| United States | 1.0 | — |
Married, or just cohabiting
Where the District stands out a second time is the paperwork. About 50.6% of D.C.’s same-sex couple households were married couples in 2024, according to the bureau’s tables, compared with 60.3% nationally, 68.1% in Maryland and 65.4% in Virginia. That gap carries a sizable margin of error — the District’s figure has a standard error of 5.5 points — but the District’s married share has ranged from 48.2% to 57.6% in each of the bureau’s annual tables since 2021.
| Area | Same-sex couple households | Share of all households | Share married |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 10,445 | 3.2% | 50.6% |
| Maryland | 23,220 | 1.0% | 68.1% |
| Virginia | 30,502 | 0.9% | 65.4% |
| United States | 1,386,990 | 1.0% | 60.3% |
The national data offer a possible clue without settling the question. Householders in unmarried same-sex couples averaged 40.6 years old in 2024, compared with 49.0 for those in same-sex marriages, the bureau said. Unmarried opposite-sex couples were about as young, at 40.1. Moving in, it seems, is the step that tends to come first, for couples of every kind.
A moving number
The District’s share has bounced around from year to year, as small-sample survey estimates do. The bureau’s annual tables put it at 2.5% in 2021, 3.6% in 2022, 2.6% in 2023 and 3.2% in 2024. The District has led the country in each of those years’ tables.
| Year | Households | Share of all households | Share married |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 8,069 | 2.5% | 57.6% |
| 2022 | 11,787 | 3.6% | 48.2% |
| 2023 | 8,832 | 2.6% | 57.6% |
| 2024 | 10,445 | 3.2% | 50.6% |
Nationally, the bureau said, the count of same-sex couple households has nearly doubled since 2005, and the mix has flipped: female couples now outnumber male couples among both married and unmarried households. Married female same-sex households rose from about 178,000 in 2005 to about 450,000 in 2024, while married male households grew from about 214,000 to about 386,000.
What the count misses
The figures likely miss some of the city’s couples. The survey records each person’s relationship only to the householder, the bureau notes, so a couple who rent rooms in someone else’s household may not be identified as a couple at all. Couples who live apart do not appear either, since the survey counts households, not relationships.
What the numbers do show is a city where same-sex households are a routine part of the residential landscape rather than a statistical footnote. About one in every 32 District households is a same-sex couple, by the bureau’s estimate, compared with about one in 100 nationally.
The Inquisitor contacted the Census Bureau, the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, the Rainbow History Project, the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and two therapists who work with couples on Saturday.
Photo: The 2023 Capital Pride Parade in Washington. UK in USA / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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