More Americans coming out on Facebook than ever before

In the past year, a staggering 800,000 Americans came out on Facebook regarding their sexual orientation.

According to new data from the social network, since last October there has been a steadily rising rate of people who are updating their profiles to express their attraction to the same or both genders, announce a same-sex relationship, or redefine their genders.

CBS News reports that this new data which was released on Thursday tracked the number of Facebook users who have come out since the National Coming Out Day in America on October 11, 2014.

The social network giant, Facebook added the option to create a custom gender in February last year to allow people to define themselves outside binary male-female distinctions, reports CBS News.

On its research blog, Facebook said “Not only has the total number of Americans who have come out on Facebook risen dramatically, but so has the number coming out each day.”

"The number of people on Facebook coming out per day is on track to be three times what it was a year ago."

A chart showing how many people come out daily, which is expressed as a percentage of how many came out on National Coming Out Day last year shows the growth, reports CBS News.

Following the United States Supreme Court decision on Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26 a clear spike was visible.

On a typical day, one in 10 people on Facebook change their "interested in" status, which indicates what gender they are attracted to. On the day the Supreme Court ruled in favour of same-sex marriages, the figure doubled.

"Facebook's research is proving just what a difference visibility makes to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people," said Jay Brown, director of research and public education at Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

"In a year that's seen unprecedented coverage of LGBT people -- from major coming out moments to Supreme Court victories to tragedies shaking the community-- we see people becoming visible in their own lives."