WASHINGTON – Same-sex partners head households in nearly every county in the country, show census figures from one of the most comprehensive counts yet of homosexuals in the United States. Gay or lesbian couple-led homes totaled close to 600,000 nationwide.

Among states, California with 92,138 such households and New York with 46,490 have the biggest shares of the country’s 594,391 same sex couple-led homes, according to results from the 2000 census. Maine recorded 3,394 same-sex couple households, representing 0.65 percent of all homes in the state.

Among cities, Portland, Maine, ranked third, behind only the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose metropolitan area and Santa Fe, N.M., for the highest percentage of cohabitation by same-sex couples. The San Francisco area recorded 2.04 percent of all coupled households in such arrangements, while Santa Fe was at 1.95 percent, and Portland 1.65 percent.

More than 99 percent of all counties in the country had at least one household headed by unmarried partners of the same sex, including places in the rural Midwest and Deep South.

Overall, such living arrangements still make up a tiny share of American households – just over one-half of 1 percent of the 105.5 million homes.

Yet many gay rights groups said the count alone offered proof of changing societal views of homosexuality. The data would be used in battles over issues such as discrimination and legal recognition of same-sex couples, said Paula Ettelbrick of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

“The next step is to get federal, state and local government to begin responding to these communities,” Ettelbrick said. The results also dispel stereotypes that homosexuality is limited to large urban centers and college towns, she said.

On the Net:

Census Bureau: http:///www.census.gov/

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force: http:///www.ngltf.org/

Urban Institute: http:///www.urban.org/