Gender identity, England and Wales: Census 2021

This page is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg) (PDF, 358KB).

• The census question on gender identity was a voluntary question asked of those aged 16 years and over. The question asked “Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?”.

• Overall, 45.7 million (94.0% of the population aged 16 years and over) answered the question.

• In total, 45.4 million (93.5%) answered “Yes” and 262,000 (0.5%) answered “No”.

• The remaining 2.9 million (6.0%) did not answer the question.

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Gender identity refers to a person’s sense of their own gender, whether male, female or another category such as non-binary. This may or may not be the same as their sex registered at birth.

The question on gender identity was new for Census 2021. It was added to provide the first official data on the size of the transgender population in England and Wales. The data will help to:

• provide better quality information for monitoring purposes

• support anti-discrimination duties under the Equality Act 2010

• aid allocation for resources and policy development

The question was voluntary and was only asked of people aged 16 years and over. People were asked “Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?”, and had the option of selecting either “Yes”, or selecting “No” and writing in their gender identity.

Across England and Wales, there were responses from 45.7 million people (94.0% of the population aged 16 years and over).

A total of 45.4 million (93.5%) answered “Yes”, indicating that their gender identity was the same as their sex registered at birth.

A total of 262,000 people (0.5%) answered “No”, indicating that their gender identity was different from their sex registered at birth. Within this group:

• 118,000 (0.24%) answered “No” but did not provide a write-in response

• 48,000 (0.10%) identified as a trans man

• 48,000 (0.10%) identified as a trans woman

• 30,000 (0.06%) identified as non-binary

• 18,000 (0.04%) wrote in a different gender identity

The remaining 2.9 million (6.0%) did not answer the question on gender identity.

Figure 1: Gender identity, 2021, England and Wales

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Census 2021 data reveal how gender identity varied across England and Wales. As the question was voluntary, please be aware of differences in response rates when comparing between different areas.

The percentage of the population aged 16 years and over who reported that their gender identity was different from their sex at birth was slightly higher in England (0.55%) than it was in Wales (0.40%).

Within England, the region with the highest percentage who reported that their gender identity was different from their sex at birth was London (0.91%), and the region with the lowest percentage was the South West (0.42%).

Compared with England and Wales as a whole, London had higher percentages of people who identified as a trans man (0.16%), who identified as a trans woman (0.16%), and who answered “No” but did not provide a write-in response (0.46%).

Of the 10 local authorities with the largest proportion of the population aged 16 years and over whose gender identity was different from their sex at birth, 8 were in London, with Newham (1.51%) and Brent (1.31%) topping the list. The two non-London local authorities in the top 10 were Oxford (1.25%), which was third, and Norwich (1.07%), which was ninth. In Wales, the local authorities with the highest percentages were Cardiff (0.71%) and Ceredigion (0.70%).

In terms of specific gender identities, Brent and Newham also had the highest percentage who identified as a trans man (0.28% and 0.25%, respectively), while Barking and Dagenham had the highest percentage who identified as a trans woman (0.25%). Newham also had the highest percentage of people who answered “No” but did not provide a write-in response (0.91%). In Wales, Cardiff had the highest percentage who identified as a trans man (0.12%) and also had the highest percentage who identified as a trans woman (0.13%).

The five local authorities with the highest proportion of the population aged 16 years and over who identified as non-binary were all outside London. Brighton and Hove had the highest percentage (0.35%), followed by Norwich (0.33%) and Cambridge (0.26%). In fifth place was Ceredigion (0.23%), which had the highest percentage who identified as non-binary of any local authority in Wales.

Figure 2: Gender identity, 2021, local authorities in England and Wales

Source: Office for National Statistics – Census 2021

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.xlsx

More detailed data and analysis on gender identity will be published in the coming months, alongside the release of multivariate data. Read more about our sexual orientation and gender identity analysis plans and the release plans for Census 2021 more generally.

Gender identity

Gender identity refers to a person’s sense of their own gender, whether male, female or another category such as non-binary. This may or may not be the same as their sex registered at birth.

Gender identity different from sex registered at birth but no specific identity given

These are people who answered “No” to the question “Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?” but did not write in a gender identity.

Non-binary

Someone who is non-binary does not identify with the binary categories of man and woman. In these results the category includes people who identified with the specific term “non-binary” or variants thereon. However, those who used other terms to describe an identity which was neither specifically man nor woman have been classed in “All other gender identities”.

Trans man

A trans man is someone who was registered female at birth, but now identifies as a man.

Trans woman

A trans woman is someone who was registered male at birth, but now identifies as a woman.

Usual resident

A usual resident is anyone who on Census Day, 21 March 2021, was in the UK and had stayed or intended to stay in the UK for a period of 12 months or more, or had a permanent UK address and was outside the UK and intended to be outside the UK for less than 12 months.

Reference date

The census provides estimates of the characteristics of all people and households in England and Wales on Census Day, 21 March 2021. It is carried out every 10 years and gives us the most accurate estimate of all the people and households in England and Wales.

Response rate

The overall person response rate for the census is the number of usual residents for whom individual details were provided on a returned questionnaire, divided by the estimated usual resident population.

The person response rate for Census 2021 was 97% of the usual resident population of England and Wales, and over 88% in all local authorities. Most returns (89%) were received online. The response rate exceeded our target of 94% overall and 80% in all local authorities.

Read more about question-specific response rates at local authority level in Section 4 of our Measures showing the quality of Census 2021 estimates.

Quality considerations along with the strengths and limitations of Census 2021 more generally can be found in the Quality and Methodology Information (QMI) for Census 2021. Read more about the Sexual orientation and gender identity quality information for Census 2021.

Further information on our quality assurance processes is provided in our Maximising the quality of Census 2021 population estimates methodology.