BY THE NUMBERS

1.6% Americans Identify as Gay

Census Bureau reports for first time.

For the first time since the federal health interview was launched in 1957, the U.S. Census Bureau has included questions of sexual orientation. According to the report issued on Tuesday, 1.6 percent of Americans identified as gay in 2013. Another 0.7 percent called themselves bisexual, and 1.1 percent wrote "something else" or "I don't know the answer," or would not respond. The numbers were released by the Centers for Disease Control, which hopes the statistics will shed light on health issues affecting different parts of the population. Other estimates have pegged the number of gay Americans as high as 5 percent.