Nearly three million people 13 years and older in the United States identify as transgender, according to a new report published by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.
The report, which gathered information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System as well as the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System and advanced statistical modeling, found that roughly 1% of the US population above the age of 13 identifies as transgender. In total, the report concluded that there are at least 2.8 million individuals in the US who identify as transgender and are 13 years of age or older.
Notably, younger age groups are significantly overrepresented in the overall breakdown of transgender Americans by age, according to the report. Roughly 724,000 people between the ages of 13 and 17 identify as transgender, representing 3.3% of youth, compared to a total of 2.1 million trans adults 18 years of age or older — about 0.8% of adults. Moreover, 76% of transgender individuals who are at least 13 years old are within the 13-35 age group — far higher than the 34% of people overall who are between 13 and 35 years of age. Moreover, 25% of trans people are between 13 and 17 years of age, while just 8% of the overall population is between 13 and 17 years old.
The report’s age differences are consistent with other statistical reports about demographics in the broader LGBTQ community. According to a recent Gallup report, LGBTQ people make up just 1.8% of the Silent Generation, which comprises of those born 1945 or earlier, compared to 3% for baby boomers (born 1946-1964), 5.1% for Generation X (born 1965-1980), 14% for Millennials (born 1981-1996), and 23.1% for Generation Z (born 1997-2006).
“Younger generations are more likely to identify as transgender, and we expect that trend to continue,” the Williams Institute report’s lead author, Jody Herman, said in a written statement. “Youth and young adults are more likely to identify as transgender due to a variety of factors, including a greater willingness among younger individuals to disclose that they identify as transgender on surveys.”
The report’s gender breakdown, however, is far more balanced. Among the 2.1 million US adults who identify as trans, 32.7% are trans women, 34.2% are trans men, and 33.1% are non-binary. The racial breakdown largely reflects the broader US population, according to the report.
The report also outlined the percentage of individuals who identify as transgender in each state. Leading the way among trans adults is Minnesota, where 1.21% of people 18 years of age or older are transgender, followed by Vermont (1.14%), Delaware (1.12%), Masschusetts (1.10%), Washington (1.07%) and Nebraska (1.04%). New York ranks 17th (0.95%), while North Carolina, Arkansas, and Nebraska are on the bottom of the list with 0.45%, 0.44%, and 0.41%, respectively.
Read the full report at williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu.
