Posts Tagged ‘poverty’

Poverty Rates Among LGBT Individuals

Friday, January 24th, 2014

The Henry K. Kaiser Family Foundation recently released an intriguing issue brief on LGBT healthcare entitled “Health and Access to Care and Coverage for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Individuals in the U.S.” The report is chock-full of fascinating statistics from a variety of recent studies. Check out the full report for sources.

The issue brief looked at poverty among LGBTers compared to the overall population.

  • 39% of LGBT individuals earn less than $30K/yr, as opposed to 28% of the overall US population.
  • 28% of lesbians are poor, compared to 21% of heterosexual women.
  • 23% of gay men are poor, compared to 15% of heterosexual men.
  • Transgender people are 4 times more likely to earn less than $10K/yr than the cisgender population.

The report contains even more statistics than these startling facts. Poverty isn’t just about money: your income level has a huge impact on healthcare, mental health, and overall well-being too.