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The number of Americans who openly identify as LGBT has hit a record high after increasing for the sixth year in a row, according to a new study.

Gallup – a research-based consultant company, known for its opinion polls worldwide – recently released new data that showed a record-breaking 4.5 of Americans surveyed identified as LGBT.

As part of the daily tracking performed by the major polling company, Gallup spoke to over 340,000 people in 2017.

In their polls, Gallup found that 4.5 percent of the population identified as LGBT, an increase from 4.1 percent in 2016.

The company began to ask whether survey-takers identified as LGBT in 2012 and has seen an increase every year since.

In 2012, 3.5 percent of the adults surveyed identified as LGBT, compared to 3.7 percent in 2014.

This research discovered a gap between how different genders identify, with 5.1 percent of women identifying as LGBT, compared with 3.9 percent of men.

If 4.5 percent of the adult population of the US were LGBT, as this study indicates, it would mean that over 11 million adults in the US would currently identify as LGBT.

Related: Born this way – Half of Americans think you’re gay from birth

Gallup also found that there was a significant generational gap in how people identify.

The increase in Americans identifying as LGBT has been driven mainly by millennials, which Gallup records as those born between 1980 and 1999.

Gallup’s data showed that the percentage of LGBT millennials increased from 7.3 percent in 2016 to 8.1 percent in 2017 – up from 5.8 percent in 2012, when the company started research on the issue.

The Gallup surveys also included respondents born between 1913-1945.

1.4 percent of people aged 72 or older identified as LGBT, showing no change from 2016, according to the Gallup research.

Gallup also measured people who identified as LGBT by household income and by race and ethnicity.

The survey found that people with lower incomes were more likely to openly identify as LGBT, as they had seen every year since the start of polling about sexuality in 2012.

The results from another recent poll by Gallup marked the highest level of support the firm has ever recorded in more than 20 years of asking Americans about their views on the issue.

Gallup first surveyed Americans on the same-sex union in 1996. Back then, just 27 percent of those queried supported gay marriage.

However, according to the 2017 data, 67 percent of Americans support marriage equality.

The new data showed that 83 percent of those who classed themselves as Democrats said they support legally recognised same-sex marriage – compared to less than half (44 percent) of Republic respondents.