Census counts 23,000 married couples in the Golden State alone

Census count: 23,000 of California's gay couples consider themselves married

SACRAMENTO — As many as 23,000 same-sex couples in California identified themselves as married last year, according to the first census figures to deal with gay marriage — a number starkly higher than a previous estimate for the state had indicated.

That amounts to more than a quarter of the 84,000 gay couples estimated in the state, a percentage that places California just ahead of the national average. The U.S. Census Bureau says nearly 150,000 same-sex couples across the nation consider themselves married, out of more than 560,000 same-sex couples overall.

Previously, the most commonly cited tally of married gay couples in California was 18,000.

Although the statistics are sure to stoke the state's ongoing political debate about same-sex nuptials — especially in the wake of the court decision upholding Proposition 8 — demographers caution that the numbers remain imprecise.

In California, for example, marriage certificates don't track gender. So there's no way to differentiate between couples who have actually received marriage certificates, they say, and couples who consider themselves married even though their partnerships lack official recognition.

"It's clear there are a lot of same-sex couples who define themselves as spouses even in the absence of any formal legal protection," said Gary Gates, a demographer at the University of California-Los Angeles. "That says something about the commitment levels of the couples and how they view their relationships, regardless of how the government might."

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