Over 2.8 million people are currently identifying as a transgender in the United States, including about 724,000 young people, according to a new data analysis, the largest of its kind so far.
Over 2.8 million US people identify trans photo shutterstock
Researchers at Williams Institute at California University, Los Angeles (UCLA) used federal surveys and data of state health agencies to determine the size and demography of the Trans population in each state.
The analysis, transmitted to The Guardian and made public on Wednesday, documented the existence of thousands of young trans in all 50 states and in the District of Colombia. The conclusions contradict Donald Trump's aggressive efforts to deny the existence of trans minors, while its administration eliminates references to trans -people from federal agencies and widely erodes the protections and programs for LGBTQ+communities.
The report is based on efforts to collect federal data that the White House is now eliminating. The authors warn that their study could be the last comprehensive portrait of the US population in the US for a decade or more, given that trans people are eliminated from essential polls, including health and crime analysis.
Williams Institute was mainly based on data from 2021–2023 from surveys for disease control and prevention (CDC), as well as reports provided by state health agencies.
The main findings
According to the analysis, 1% of the total US population aged 13 and over is identified as trans, including 0.8% of adults (over 2.1 million people) and 3.3% of young people between 13 and 17 years (about 724,000 people).
Young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 are more likely to identify themselves as trans (2.72%) than people between 35 and 64 (0.42%) and 65 years and over (0.26%).
Of the 2.1 million trans adults, 32.7% (698,500) are trans women, 34.2% (730,500) are trans men and 33.1% (707.100) are non-binary trans.
Trans populations are relatively constant in all regions, with 0.9% of adults in the West, Midwest and Northeast which identify as trans, compared to 0.7% of the south adults.
Minnesota has the highest percentage of adults who identify as trans (1.2%), and Hawaii has the highest percentage of young trans (3.6%), although intervals are similar between states.
Williams Institute, a foreground research center in the field of LGBTQ+policies, has published estimates on the trans-national population since 2011, when it has made the first such report, with the emergence of state data level data.
Estimates are considered the best available data and have been cited by the US Supreme Court in its recent majority opinion confirming the prohibition of Tennessee state on medical care for young transtens.
The younger generation, more open to declare Transgender
There are many factors that contribute to the fact that young people identify themselves as trans in larger proportions, including the fact that they are more willing to answer such questions, said Dr. Andrew Flores, a invited researcher at Williams Institute and associate professor of political science at American University.
“Young people grow in an environment in which other young people already have more open attitudes towards LGBT and Transgender people.”said Flores, co-author of the report, mentioning visible signs of support, such as Florida students compared to anti-translate policies. “In this generation, they could be more willing to declare Transgender, because they do not perceive the same risks or threats as the older generations.”
Although some conservatives and anti-transservists have presented the increase in the number of young transte as on a “social contagion”, suggesting that they imitate their colleagues, “The growth comes from the fact that people now live in an environment that allows them to fully express who they are”said Flores.
The change of language also influenced the generations, he added, noting that older people were more likely to identify themselves as lesbians or gays, while young people tend to identify themselves as bisexual or pansexual. And while older trans-people are more frequently identified as men or women, Trans young people are more often non-bias.
The report also showed that the racial and ethnic structure of trans persons is largely similar to that of the general population in the US, with a slight greater probability than indigenous, Latin and multi -transient adults to identify as other groups.
The Trump Administration, which has widely attacked the data collection efforts at government level, has eliminated the questions about the transparents of two essential behavioral health polls and from the justice department surveys on crime and sexual violence. The US Census Office has also taken measures to exclude gender identity from several polls, according to the former director who resigned in February.
