An estimated 0.6 percent of adults in the United States, or 1.4 million individuals, identify as transgender, according to a new study authored by researchers at The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. The study provides the first ever state-level estimates of the percentage of adults who identify as transgender throughout the United States, ranging from 0.3 percent in North Dakota to 0.8 percent in Hawaii.
Credit: UCLA The Williams Institute
“The findings from this study are critical to current policy discussions that impact transgender people,” said Jody Herman, one of the authors of the study. “Policy debates on access to bathrooms, discrimination, and a host of other issues should rely on the best available data to assess potential impacts, including how many people may be affected.”
The study, titled “How Many Adults Identify as Transgender in the United States,” by Andrew R. Flores, Jody L. Herman, Gary J. Gates, and Taylor N. T. Brown, updates previous estimates of the population of transgender adults in the U.S. Study authors used data from the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which includes representative surveys of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. In 2014, 19 states included a question about transgender identity on their BRFSS survey, and the number of states that ask that question is growing. The authors used additional data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to develop estimates of the transgender-identified adult populations of the other 31 states.
Key findings from the study include:
- Approximately 0.6 percent of adults identify as transgender, or 1.4 million adults.
- There are differences in the percentage of adults who identify as transgender among the states. Hawaii (0.8 percent), California (0.8 percent), Georgia (0.8 percent), New Mexico (0.8 percent), Texas (0.7 percent), and Florida (0.7 percent) are the states that have the highest percentages of adults who identify as transgender.
- The states with the lowest percentages of transgender-identified adults are North Dakota (0.3 percent), Iowa (0.3 percent), Wyoming (0.3 percent), Montana (0.3 percent), and South Dakota (0.3 percent).
- Young adults are more likely than older adults to identify as transgender. Among adults ages 18 to 24, 0.7 percent identify as transgender; among adults ages 25 to 64, 0.6 percent identify as transgender; and among adults ages 65 and older, 0.5 percent identify as transgender.
