Aug

27

Nearly Two-thirds of New York City’s Same-sex Couples Live Outside of Manhattan

Filed Under Life, Relationships, Research 

New York City Same-sex Couples Census MapLos Angeles, CA — A new study published by UCLA’s Williams Institute analyzes data from Census 2000 and finds that there are nearly 26,000 same-sex couples in New York City, most of whom (62%) live outside of Manhattan.

Study co-author and Senior Research Fellow Gary Gates notes that, “We need to look beyond Will and Grace to understand the lives of gay and lesbian New Yorkers. Most same-sex couples in New York City live outside of Manhattan and many of those couples are raising children, nearly half in the Bronx.”

Census data show that New York City’s same-sex couples are raising an estimated 8,400 children in their homes. Some facts about these families include:

- 92% of children being raised by same-sex couples live outside of Manhattan.

- These families are economically disadvantaged, having average household incomes between 7% (Brooklyn) and 36% (Staten Island) lower than their married counterparts.

- They are also less likely than their married counterparts to own their own homes in every borough except Manhattan.

There are some notable differences in the characteristics of same-sex couples among the five boroughs:

- While nearly half of same-sex couples are raising children in the Bronx, only 4% of same-sex couples in Manhattan have children.

- While same-sex male couples outnumber female couples by a 3-to-1 margin in Manhattan, the proportions are fairly even in Queens and Staten Island and female couples outnumber male couples in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

- More than 4-in-10 individuals in same-sex couples are Latino/a in the Bronx, the only borough where those in same-sex couples are more likely to be non-white than those in different-sex married couples.

- Individuals in same-sex couples in the Bronx also have lower educational levels and lower household incomes than their different-sex married counterparts, characteristics unique to that borough.

This study is part of a larger series of Census Snapshots (including one for the state of New York) and can be accessed at the Williams Institute website.

Source: Williams Institute

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