Why online dating matters more for LGBTQI+ people
For lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex people, online dating is not just one option among many. In most places, LGBTQI+ people are a small minority of the population, which makes it hard to meet potential partners through work, friends or chance encounters, and in many countries being open in public carries social or legal risk. Dating apps solved both problems at once: they make it easy to find other LGBTQI+ people nearby and allow a first contact to happen privately. That is why LGBTQI+ adults use dating apps at almost twice the rate of straight adults, and why same-sex couples are far more likely than opposite-sex couples to have met online.
The same technology also brings distinct risks. LGBTQI+ users report more harassment than straight users, dating apps have been used by police in several countries to identify and arrest gay and transgender people, and the sensitive nature of the data on these apps has led to record privacy fines. This report sets out the data on the size of the LGBTQI+ population, how LGBTQI+ people use online dating, the leading apps and their business performance, and the safety, privacy and legal issues that shape queer dating around the world.
How many people identify as LGBT+?
Any picture of LGBTQI+ online dating starts with the size of the community. In a 26-country survey carried out by Ipsos in April and May 2025, an average of 9 percent of adults identified as LGBT+, meaning they described their sexual orientation as other than heterosexual or their gender identity as other than cisgender. The share varied widely, from 14 percent in Brazil to 5 percent in Colombia, South Korea and Poland.
From 14 percent to 5 percent: Brazil had the highest share of adults identifying as LGBT+ in 2025, while Colombia, South Korea and Poland had the lowest.
Surveys like this measure self-identification, which depends on how comfortable people feel disclosing an identity. In countries where LGBTQI+ people face discrimination, the true share is likely to be understated, and in many of the countries where dating apps are most dangerous for LGBTQI+ users, no reliable survey data exists at all. The official 2021 census for England and Wales, the first to ask the question, found that 3.2 percent of people aged 16 and over, about 1.5 million, identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or another minority sexual orientation, a lower figure than most online surveys produce.
Younger generations drive the change
The single clearest pattern in the data is age. Across the 26 countries in the Ipsos survey, 14 percent of Gen Z adults identified as LGBT+, compared with 9 percent of millennials, 6 percent of Gen X and 5 percent of baby boomers. Younger adults are both more likely to identify as LGBT+ and more likely to use dating apps, which is why the LGBTQI+ dating market is growing faster than the dating market as a whole.
Almost three times as likely: Gen Z adults were nearly three times as likely as baby boomers to identify as LGBT+.
Bisexuality accounts for much of this generational shift. Younger adults are far more likely than older ones to describe themselves as bisexual or pansexual, and many dating apps have responded by adding more options for sexual orientation and gender identity. Tinder lets users choose from Man, Woman or Beyond Binary, with more options in some markets and a Not listed option, while Hinge and Bumble offer many more gender identities to choose from. For many younger users, the choice is no longer between a mainstream app and a gay app, but about which apps represent them best, just as they spread their time across many of the largest social networks.
LGBTQ+ identification in the US has more than doubled
The United States has the longest-running measure of LGBTQ+ identity. Gallup found that 9.0 percent of US adults identified as LGBTQ+ in 2025, close to the record 9.3 percent of 2024 and more than double the 3.5 percent recorded when it first asked the question in 2012.
More than doubled: the share of US adults identifying as LGBTQ+ rose from 3.5 percent in 2012 to 9.0 percent in 2025.
The rise is almost entirely driven by younger adults. In 2025, 23 percent of US adults aged 18 to 29 identified as LGBTQ+, compared with 10.4 percent of those aged 30 to 49, 3.1 percent of those aged 50 to 64 and 2.3 percent of those aged 65 and over. For dating apps, that means nearly one in four young American adults is a potential user of LGBTQ+ dating features, a far larger market than a decade ago. For the wider demographic picture, see our data on the US population by sex and age.
Bisexual people are the largest group
Within the LGBTQ+ population, bisexual people are by far the largest group. In the Gallup data for 2025, 5.3 percent of all US adults identified as bisexual, 1.6 percent as gay, 1.4 percent as lesbian and 1.1 percent as transgender, with another 0.5 percent choosing another identity. Some people choose more than one label, so these shares add up to more than the overall total.
Bisexual people lead: 5.3 percent of US adults identified as bisexual in 2025, more than gay and lesbian adults combined.
This matters for dating. Bisexual people often use mainstream apps such as Tinder, Hinge and Bumble, where they can match with people of more than one gender, while gay men have historically concentrated on specialist apps such as Grindr. Lesbian and queer women, trans and non-binary users have fewer dedicated options, and several apps have been built specifically to serve them, from HER to Taimi and Lex.
LGB adults use online dating at almost twice the rate
The most detailed data on how LGBTQI+ people use dating apps comes from the Pew Research Center, which surveyed 6,034 US adults in July 2022. It found that 51 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults had used a dating site or app, compared with 28 percent of straight adults. Among LGB adults, 13 percent were using one at the time of the survey, 11 percent had used one in the past year and 27 percent more than a year earlier.
More use, more abuse: LGB adults were far more likely than straight adults to have dated online, and far more likely to have received unwanted explicit messages.
Online dating is also far more important to how LGBTQI+ people form relationships. According to Pew, 24 percent of partnered LGB adults met their current spouse or partner on a dating site or app, rising to 37 percent of partnered LGB men, compared with about 10 percent of all partnered US adults. Research by sociologists Michael Rosenfeld, Reuben Thomas and Sonia Hausen, based on the How Couples Meet and Stay Together survey, found that about 60 percent of same-sex couples who met in 2017 had met online, compared with 39 percent of heterosexual couples. For same-sex couples, the internet has become the main way to meet a partner.
Overall experiences are positive. Among LGB adults who have dated online, 61 percent described their experience as positive, including 64 percent of LGB men and 56 percent of LGB women, a higher share than the 53 percent of all US online daters. But half of LGB online daters, 50 percent, said they had encountered someone they thought was trying to scam them, including 60 percent of men.
Harassment on dating apps
Harassment is a much more common experience for LGB online daters than for straight users. In the Pew survey, 56 percent of LGB online daters had received sexually explicit messages or images they did not ask for, against 34 percent of straight users. Some 42 percent had been contacted again after saying they were not interested, against 28 percent, and 33 percent had been called an offensive name, against 22 percent. Overall, 64 percent of LGB users had experienced at least one of these behaviours, compared with 45 percent of straight users.
Transgender and non-binary users face particular problems, including being reported and banned by other users who object to their presence, and receiving abusive messages about their identity. GLAAD, which rates social platforms on LGBTQ safety each year, has repeatedly criticised the moderation of anti-trans content, and its surveys suggest that about one in two LGBTQ Americans has experienced harassment or bullying. Many dating apps have introduced features to reduce abuse, including photo verification, filters that blur unsolicited explicit images, and the option to hide a profile from users who are not a match. The wider context of online abuse is covered in our data on the biggest social media platforms and daily social media usage.
Grindr: the largest LGBTQ+ app
Grindr, launched in 2009, is the largest social networking and dating app for gay, bisexual, trans and queer people, and the only one that is a listed company, which means its figures are audited and public. It had an average of about 15 million monthly active users in 2025 in more than 190 countries and territories, and an average of about 1.3 million paying users. In 2024 its paying users averaged 1.1 million, with a payer conversion rate of 7.6 percent and average revenue per paying user of 22.53 dollars a month.
More than doubling in three years: Grindr revenue grew from 195 million dollars in 2022 to 439.9 million in 2025, and the company expects about 540 million in 2026.
Grindr has grown quickly since it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2022. Revenue rose 34 percent in 2022, 33 percent in 2023 and 2024, and 28 percent in 2025, to 439.9 million dollars. It became solidly profitable in 2025, with net income of 94.8 million dollars and adjusted EBITDA of 195.6 million, a margin of 44.5 percent. In the second quarter of 2026 revenue grew 33 percent to 138.1 million dollars, and the company raised its full-year guidance to about 540 million. Most of its revenue comes from subscriptions such as Grindr XTRA and Grindr Unlimited; advertising brought in about 54 million dollars in 2024.
Grindr has also been at the center of a corporate battle. In October 2025, its two largest shareholders, Ray Zage and James Lu, who together own more than 60 percent of the shares, offered 18 dollars a share to take the company private. A special committee of independent directors ended talks in November 2025, citing uncertainty about how the deal would be financed. Grindr is now investing heavily in AI features, which its chief executive says will make it an AI-native company. For context on how apps make money, see our data on the most popular App Store categories.
HER, Taimi, Hornet, Blued and the wider market
Beyond Grindr, the LGBTQI+ dating market is fragmented among many smaller apps, most of them private companies that publish few verified figures. HER, founded by Robyn Exton in London in 2013 as Dattch, is the best-known app for lesbian, bisexual and queer women and non-binary people; it was acquired by Match Group, the owner of Tinder and Hinge, in May 2025. Taimi, founded in 2017, says it has more than 25 million registered users across the LGBTQ+ spectrum. Hornet, popular with gay men in Europe, Latin America and Asia, says more than 100 million people have used its apps. Scruff and Romeo serve specific communities and regions.
In China, Blued, founded in 2012 by a former police officer, Ma Baoli, grew into the largest gay app in the world by registered users, reporting more than 49 million registered users and about 6 million monthly active users in 2020. Its parent company, BlueCity, left the Nasdaq in 2022 and is now controlled by Newborn Town. In November 2025, Chinese authorities ordered Blued and another gay app, Finka, removed from app stores in China, including the Apple App Store, although existing users could still use them. Grindr had already been removed from the Chinese App Store in 2022.
Mainstream apps also serve a large LGBTQI+ audience. Hinge surveyed more than 14,000 daters for its 2025 LGBTQIA+ dating report and found that 82 percent of LGBTQIA+ daters on the app were looking for a life partner, and that 45 percent had considered dating outside their usual gender preference. Company figures on user numbers are self-reported and measure different things, from registered accounts to monthly users, so they cannot be compared directly. For broader app market data, see our figures on the leading Android apps by downloads and App Store apps by category.
Where dating while LGBTQI+ is still a crime
For millions of LGBTQI+ people, using a dating app carries legal risk. According to ILGA World, 65 UN member states still criminalised consensual same-sex sexual acts in 2026, and in 2025 that number increased for the first time in almost a decade, as Burkina Faso criminalised same-sex relations and Trinidad and Tobago reversed a court ruling that had decriminalised them. Seven states prescribe the death penalty, and in five more it is legally possible. At the other end, 37 UN member states, plus Taiwan, recognise same-sex marriage.
A third of the world: 65 of the 193 UN member states still criminalise consensual same-sex acts, almost twice as many as allow same-sex marriage.
These laws shape how dating apps work. In countries where being gay is illegal, apps may be blocked, may hide themselves on the phone behind a discreet icon, or may disable features such as distance display that could reveal a user location. Grindr, for example, has shown warnings to users in Egypt about police using fake accounts, and turns off the display of distance in countries where it is considered dangerous. Even where same-sex relations are legal, restrictions on freedom of expression affect how apps can advertise and operate: ILGA counts at least 63 states that limit expression related to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Police entrapment through dating apps
The most serious risk is the use of dating apps by police and others to entrap LGBTQI+ people. In a 2023 report, Human Rights Watch documented how security forces in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia created fake profiles on Grindr and Facebook to arrange meetings with gay and transgender people and then arrest them. Based on interviews with 90 LGBT people and 30 experts, the report documented 45 cases of arbitrary arrest involving 40 people, 20 cases of online entrapment, 17 of online extortion and 26 of online harassment, including outing.
Arrests follow the app: Human Rights Watch documented 45 arbitrary arrests, 20 entrapment cases and 17 extortion cases linked to digital targeting in five countries.
Most of those prosecuted were acquitted on appeal, but the report described forced phone searches, coerced confessions and denial of legal representation during detention. Human Rights Watch called on platforms to invest in content moderation in Arabic, to carry out human rights due diligence, and to design features that reduce the risk of users being identified. Government access to platform data more broadly is tracked in our figures on government data requests to Facebook and Facebook user data requests.
Privacy: the most sensitive data in dating
Data on a dating app for LGBTQI+ people reveals sexual orientation by its very nature, and often location, health status and photos. That makes privacy failures especially serious. In December 2021, the Norwegian Data Protection Authority fined Grindr 65 million kroner, then one of the largest fines under the European General Data Protection Regulation, for sharing personal data with advertising partners without valid consent. The Oslo District Court upheld the fine in July 2024 and the Borgarting Court of Appeal did so again in October 2025, confirming that information that someone uses Grindr is special category data about their sex life and sexual orientation.
In September 2026, Grindr agreed to pay 26 million pounds to settle a group action brought in England by about 12,000 UK users, who alleged that between 2018 and 2020 the app shared their HIV status and other data with advertising partners. Grindr made no admission of liability and continues to dispute the claims. These cases have pushed LGBTQI+ apps to limit data sharing, give users more control over what they reveal, and adopt stronger security, but they show how much trust users place in these platforms.
The future of LGBTQI+ online dating
LGBTQI+ online dating is growing on almost every measure. More people identify as LGBTQI+, especially among younger adults, and they are more likely than anyone else to meet partners online. Grindr is on track to earn more than half a billion dollars in 2026, Match Group has moved into queer women dating with HER, and mainstream apps now offer far more options for sexual orientation and gender identity than they did a decade ago.
At the same time, the environment is becoming more polarised. Legal protections are expanding in some countries and narrowing in others, app bans in China and entrapment in parts of the Middle East show how states can turn dating technology against users, and privacy cases have shown the cost of mishandling sensitive data. The next phase will be shaped by AI, as apps use it to recommend matches, detect abuse and verify identities, and by the ability of platforms to protect users in the most hostile places. For more data on how people connect online, see our statistics on social network users worldwide, social media users by gender, generative AI users, our social media statistics and facts and smartphone vendor market share.
LGBTQI+ online dating in numbers
A few figures summarise the picture.
Together they show a community for which online dating is both essential and, in too many places, dangerous.
Frequently Asked Questions
In the United States, 51 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults have used a dating site or app, compared with 28 percent of straight adults, according to a Pew Research Center survey from 2022.
About 60 percent of US same-sex couples who met in 2017 met online, compared with 39 percent of heterosexual couples, according to Stanford-based research. Pew found 24 percent of partnered LGB adults met their current partner on a dating app or site.
Grindr, with an average of about 15 million monthly active users in more than 190 countries. It earned 439.9 million dollars of revenue in 2025 and expects about 540 million in 2026.
An average of 9 percent across 26 countries surveyed by Ipsos in 2025, ranging from 14 percent in Brazil to 5 percent in Poland, Colombia and South Korea. In the US, Gallup found 9.0 percent in 2025.
Yes. Pew found 56 percent of LGB online daters had received unwanted explicit messages or images, against 34 percent of straight users, and 64 percent had experienced at least one form of harassment, against 45 percent.
Yes. Human Rights Watch documented police using fake profiles on Grindr and Facebook to entrap LGBT people in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia, and 65 UN member states still criminalise same-sex acts.
HER, an app for lesbian, bisexual and queer women and non-binary people founded by Robyn Exton, was acquired by Match Group, owner of Tinder and Hinge, in May 2025.
Yes. Norway fined Grindr 65 million kroner in 2021 for sharing data with advertisers without valid consent, upheld on appeal in 2025. In 2026 Grindr agreed a 26 million pound UK settlement without admitting liability.
Gen Z. In the 2025 Ipsos survey, 14 percent of Gen Z adults identified as LGBT+, against 5 percent of baby boomers. In the US, Gallup found 23 percent of adults aged 18 to 29 identified as LGBTQ+.
Ipsos - LGBT+ Pride Report 2025, 26-country survey.
Gallup - LGBTQ+ identification in the U.S., 2025.
Office for National Statistics - sexual orientation, England and Wales: Census 2021.
Pew Research Center - online dating in the U.S., 2023.
Stanford University - Rosenfeld, Thomas and Hausen, how couples meet.
Grindr - full year 2025 and quarterly results.
Match Group - acquisition of HER, May 2025.
ILGA World - laws affecting LGBTI people, 2026.
Human Rights Watch - digital targeting of LGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa, 2023.
Datatilsynet - Norwegian Data Protection Authority decision on Grindr.