The Williams Institute

The news that same-sex couples lived in nearly every county of the United States marked one of most reported on statistics from the release of Census 2000 data. Since then, policy debates focusing on marriage and partnership rights for same-sex couples have led academics and policy-makers alike to use these data in hopes of gaining a more complete and accurate understanding of this population (e.g., Gates and Ost 2004; Congressional Budget Office 2004; Badgett and Sears 2005). The release of new data from the American Community Survey (ACS) this month offers the first opportunity to update what we have learned and to assess possible changes in the geographic and demographic characteristics of same-sex couples.