With the inclusion of the new high school survey data added in 2017, that estimate has now doubled to 300,000. At the time, they estimated 150,000 transgender teens in the country, or roughly 0.7 percent of teens. When their previous report was published in 2017, the Williams Institute researchers did not have actual survey data for younger teenagers, instead using statistical modeling to extrapolate based on adult data. “It’s something we are working to try to change.” “That data does not exist because it is not collected by the government in death records,” Mr. people had high rates of mental health issues and suicidal thoughts. “There is no one who knows how many trans people or how many gay people or bisexual people died of suicide this past year,” said Amit Paley, head of The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention group that recently released its own report based on social media polling, showing that young L.G.B.T.Q. And even national suicide statistics - important in the study of this vulnerable population - do not have information about sexuality or gender identity. Census Bureau began asking questions about sexual orientation and gender identity only last year, part of a new data collection effort. “We use the best available data, but we need more and better data all the time.” “It’s important to know that trans people live everywhere in the United States and trans people are a part of communities across the country,” said Jody Herman, senior scholar of public policy at the Williams Institute and the lead author of the report. From 2017 to 2020, 15 states included this question in their high school surveys, while 41 states included the question for adults at least once in that time period. Starting in 2017, the high school survey included an optional question asking if the student was transgender. The surveys, which were either conducted over the phone or in person, collect data on demographics as well as a variety of medical and behavioral information, such as smoking habits, H.I.V.
The Williams Institute used data from two national sources: the C.D.C.’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, administered to adults across the country, and its Youth Risk Behavior Survey, given in high schools. And while 20 percent of Americans are over 65, that age group makes up only 10 percent of the total number of transgender people nationwide. Older adults had a disproportionately small share: Though 62 percent of the total population, only 47 percent of transgender people were 25 to 64. Likewise, 18- to 24-year-olds made up 11 percent of the total population but 24 percent of the transgender population. population, they made up roughly 18 percent of transgender people. While younger teenagers were just 7.6 percent of the total U.S. The study found people 13 to 25 accounted for a disproportionately largely share of the transgender population. The new data were analyzed by researchers at the Williams Institute, a research center at the University of California, Los Angeles law school that produces highly regarded reports on the demographics, behaviors and policy concerns of L.G.B.T.Q. “And that it doesn’t mean that we need to treat it medically in all cases, but it does mean that we as a society need to make space for that.” “We as a culture just need to lean into the fact that there is gender diversity among us,” Dr. But nearly one-quarter of the adults in the surveys who said they were transgender identified as “gender nonconforming.” The surveys, created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, did not ask younger teenagers about nonbinary or other gender identities, which also have been rising in recent years. Goepferd, who is nonbinary, noted that many teenagers would not necessarily want or need hormones or surgeries to transition to another gender, as was typical of older generations.
The notion of what it means to live as a transgender person is also shifting. “And, generationally, gender has become a part of someone’s identity that is more socially acceptable to explore.” Angela Goepferd, medical director of the Gender Health Program at Children’s Minnesota hospital, who was not involved in the new analysis. “It’s developmentally appropriate for teenagers to explore all facets of their identity - that is what teenagers do,” said Dr.