There are an estimated 1.4 million adults in the United States that identify as transgender, according to analysis based on new state and federal data.
Though that number is more than double the amount previously thought, transgender adults still only make up 0.6 percent of the adult population nationwide.
“The findings from this study are critical to current policy discussions that impact transgender people,” Jody Herman, one of the authors of the study produced by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, said in a statement Thursday. “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 analysis also found that younger adults, those ages 18 to 24, are slightly more likely than older adults to identify as transgender. Among young adults, 0.7 percent identify as transgender. Among adults ages 25 to 64, 0.6 percent identify as transgender, and among those 65 and older, 0.5 percent identify as transgender.
Hawaii, California, Georgia and New Mexico were the states with the highest percentage of adults who identify as transgender — all at 0.8 percent. Texas and Florida were the next most populous, both at 0.7 percent.
North Dakota, Iowa, Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota had the lowest percentages of transgender-identified adults, all at 0.3 percent.
The authors of the analysis compiled data collected from a question that 19 states elected to pose in 2014 as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey. The authors also used Census Bureau data to develop population estimates for the remaining 31 states.
