Here are some of the demographic and economic characteristics of America's gay couples
On Friday, the Supreme Court made a historic ruling legalizing gay marriage throughout the United States. We decided to take a closer look at America's same sex couples.
The Census Bureau's American Community Survey is a giant annual survey that asks millions of Americans each year several questions about demographics, economic issues, and social status. When summarizing the results from the 2013 survey, the Census Bureau released statistics focusing on same sex couples living together.
Same sex households tend to be more concentrated in the West, Southwest, and Northeast. Washington, DC had the highest rate of same sex households, with 21.3 out of every 1,000 households being headed by a same sex couple:
Both opposite and same sex married couples tend to be older than unmarried couples. About a quarter of all married gay couples have the householder (the person responding to the Census Bureau's survey) over the age of 65:
Same sex couples are more likely to have college degrees than opposite sex couples. Interestingly, while married opposite sex couples are more likely than unmarried couples to have bachelor's degrees, the opposite is the case for gay couples:
Gay couples also have higher incomes than straight couples. Married gay couples, with an average household income of about $115,000, make slightly more money than unmarried gay couples, whose average is $111,223. For straight couples, the gap between married and unmarried couples is much higher. Married straight couples make $101,487 per year on average, compared to just $69,511 for unmarried straight couples:
