2015 will go down in history as the year that the U.S. Supreme Court recognized same-sex couples’ legal right to marry in any U.S. state through the Obergefell v. Hodges decision. And following the ruling, all married same-sex couples were required to fulfill a familiar marital obligation: jointly filing federal tax returns.
In a new paper, Brookings Senior Fellow Adam Looney and the Treasury Department’s Robin Fisher and Geof Gee examine data from these tax returns to provide a first-of-its-kind analysis of the patterns of America’s same-sex married couples in the years immediately following the court’s decision. The data provide some key insights, including that they are generally younger, higher income, and less likely to claim dependent children than their different-sex peers.
Additionally, Looney and his colleagues were able to identify patterns surrounding where married same-sex couples choose to live—all the way down to which neighborhoods they favor. Though these neighborhoods vary widely in size and location, their analysis shows that same-sex couples who filed taxes jointly in 2015 were most likely to live in neighborhoods in states that had already legalized same-sex marriage before the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision.
Take a look at the top 10 neighborhoods (with more than 500 filers) with the highest shares of same-sex married couples.
1. Provincetown, Massachusetts, 02657
41% of married filers in 2015 were same-sex couples (223 of 540 couples total)
Percent female-female: 12%
Percent male-male: 30%
2. Palm Springs, California, 92264 and 92262
25% of married filers in 2015 were same-sex couples (1,349 of 5,380 couples total)
Percent female-female: 2%
Percent male-male: 23%
3. San Francisco, California, aka The Castro, 94114
21% of married filers in 2015 were same-sex couples (1,044 of 5,080 couples total)
Percent female-female: 3%
Percent male-male: 17%
4. Los Angeles, California, aka West Hollywood, 90069
20% of married filers in 2015 were same-sex couples (431 of 2,120 couples total)
Percent female-female: 3%
Percent male-male: 17%
5. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 33305
17% of married filers in 2015 were same-sex couples (245 of 1,470 couples total)
Percent female-female: 2%
Percent male-male: 15%
6. Logan Circle, Washington, D.C., 20005
12% of married filers in 2015 were same-sex couples (116 of 990 couples total)
Percent female-female: 1%
Percent male-male: 11%
7. Rehoboth, Delaware, 19971
11% of married filers in 2015 were same-sex couples (282 of 2,610 couples total)
Percent female-female: 5%
Percent male-male: 6%
8. New York, New York, aka Greenwich Village, 10011
11% of married filers in 2015 were same-sex couples (624 of 5,790 couples total)
Percent female-female: 2%
Percent male-male: 9%
9. Boston, Massachusetts, aka South End, 02118
10% of married filers in 2015 were same-sex couples (292 of 2,780 couples total)
Percent female-female: 1%
Percent male-male: 9%
10. Washington, D.C., aka Northern Dupont Circle/Adams Morgan, 20009
10% of married filers in 2015 were same-sex couples (452 of 4,350 couples total)
Percent female-female: 1%
Percent male-male: 9%
To learn more, read the full paper.
Commentary
The top 10 neighborhoods where same-sex couples live after saying “I do”
February 28, 2018