How many people are transgender, non-binary, & gender-diverse

In the United States of America, there are an estimated 1.6 million transgender people aged 13 years and over. That’s 0.6 of the total USA population. Of that 0.6%, 38.5% of this number were transgender men, 35.9% were transgender women, and 25.6% were gender nonconforming. Percentages were higher in the 13-17 age bracket, with 1.4% or 300,000 American youth identifying as transgender. 

The number of adults in the USA identifying as transgender has remained stable over time since this data started being collected. Improvements in data collection on gender identity mean a clearer picture of youth gender identities has been able to emerge. 

0.5% of 2021 England and Wales Census respondents answered that their gender did not match their registered birth sex. This means that 262,000 responded that they were under the transgender umbrella. Respondents were aged 16 years and over.

While Australian data is absent, the percentage of young people estimated to be transgender in Australia and worldwide is 2-3% of young people.

When broader definitions are used, which include gender-diverse individuals, the percentages of the population who are estimated to be trans people increases to a range of 0.5%-4.5% for the adult population and to a range of 2.5% to 8.4% of the adolescent and child population (Coleman et al., 2022).

While some may think of transgender people as a modern phenomenon or fad that sprung out of some subcultures, transgender, non-binary, and other gender-diverse people have existed across a range of cultures in human history. In many cultures, the gender binaries of male and female did not even exist. In some cultures, there was a third gender, more than three genders, and a gender spectrum. Many transgender people had integrated social roles of values within their community, such as two-spirit people in some American First Nation communities.  

References

• A presence in the past: A transgender historiography by Genny Beemyn 2013.
• Cherokee “Two Spirits”: Gender, Ritual, and Spirituality in the Native South by Gregory Smithers, 2014
• Deconstructing Transgender Identities in Pakistan, India, and Iran in Colonial and Post-Colonial Context by Mahso Gichki 2020
• Gender identity, England and Wales: Census 2021 by Office for National Statistics 2021.
• How Many Adults and Youth Identify as Transgender in the United States by The Williams Institute, 2022.
• Melancholia Scytharum: The Early Modern Psychiatry of Transgender Identification by Diederick Janssen 2021.
• Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8 by Coleman et al., 2022.
• The Modern Clinician’s Guide to Working with LGBTQ+ Clients by Margaret Nichols 2021.
• Trans, Gender Diverse & Non-Binary Young People & Gender Affirming Healthcare by Transcend 2023.
• Transgender History by Susan Stryker 2017.
• Transgenderism Before Gender: Nosology From the Sixteenth Through Mid-Twentieth Century by Diederick Janssen 2020.