Measuring Sexual Orientation

This issue brief is based on the report Measuring Sex, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation, which recommends that the National Institutes of Health adopt new practices for collecting data on sex, gender, and sexual orientation. The report recommends standardized language to be used in survey questions that ask about a respondent’s sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. This issue brief discusses the recommendations for the measurement of sexual orientation in the U.S. adult population.