Where can same-sex couples adopt?
How same-sex adoption (also searched as LGBT adoption) is treated in 147 countries, from sources last checked September 2026. Choose a country for its classification, the source, and how its neighbours compare.
- Joint adoption legal 48 countries (33%), including United States, Brazil, Mexico and Germany.
- Limited (step-child / single) 27 countries (18%), including India, Japan, Philippines and Vietnam.
- Not permitted 72 countries (49%), including China, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Joint adoption legal 48
- Andorra
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bermuda
- Brazil
- Canada
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Cuba
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Falkland Islands
- Faroe Islands
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Greenland
- Guernsey
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Israel
- Jersey
- Liechtenstein
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- Saint-Barthélemy
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Thailand
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Uruguay
Limited (step-child / single) 27
Not permitted 72
- Afghanistan
- Anguilla
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Armenia
- Aruba
- Bahamas
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Barbados
- Belarus
- Belize
- Bhutan
- British Virgin Islands
- Brunei
- Cayman Islands
- China
- Curaçao
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- El Salvador
- Georgia
- Grenada
- Guatemala
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Hungary
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Jamaica
- Kazakhstan
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Lebanon
- Lithuania
- Macau
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montserrat
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- Nicaragua
- North Korea
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palestine
- Peru
- Qatar
- Romania
- Russia
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Saint-Martin
- Saudi Arabia
- Sint Maarten
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Suriname
- Syria
- Tajikistan
- Timor-Leste
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Turkmenistan
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- United Arab Emirates
- Uzbekistan
- Venezuela
- Yemen
About this data
Compiled from Wikipedia: LGBTQ adoption; sources last checked 17 September 2026. The full dataset is available as JSON.
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A visual reference compiled from Wikipedia’s law-by-country articles, not legal advice. Laws change and summaries simplify — check a primary source before relying on anything here.