Demographics

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    This page will ideally include information on the estimated numbers of nonbinary people worldwide as well as in specific regions. We also will try to have other demographic and statistical information when available.

    Difficulties[edit | edit source]

    Obtaining accurate numbers of nonbinary people is difficult due to many factors such as:

    • Many nonbinary people are not out, or for some other reason they are not comfortable reporting their gender identity on surveys.
    • Most large-scale population counts only allow for binary gender selections.
    • Depending on how the gender question is worded, nonbinary people may think it is asking for their legal gender or their sex assigned at birth.
    • Some people who technically come under the nonbinary umbrella term (people who have a gender that is not 100% always male/man or 100% always female/woman) may not identify as "nonbinary" or whichever term is being used in a particular survey. (For example, the country of Nepal's 2011 census allowed people to identify themselves as "Female", "Male", or "Third Gender", but many Nepalese people identify as "Methi" or "Kothi" rather than as "third gender".[1])

    Worldwide[edit | edit source]

    More information needed.

    In the 2021 Gender Census, there were over 44,000 respondents.[2] However this is a limited set (e.g. mainly English-speaking people who use social media) and thus does not represent a full global count of people who identify outside the gender binary.

    Australia[edit | edit source]

    On the 2016 Australian Census, for the first time people could identify themselves as "male", "female", or "other". 1300 people selected "other".[3] However, the "other" option was only available through an opt-in process, not a standard census option, so the count is likely lower than the actual number of nonbinary Australians.[4]

    Canada[edit | edit source]

    Trans PULSE Canada, a 2019 survey of trans and nonbinary people across Canada, garnered 2,873 responses. About 48% of respondents (about 1379 people) were coded as "non-binary or similar", while about 2% (about 57 people) were "Indigenous or cultural gender". 4% of respondents selected that they were Two-Spirit, however this was in the "Sexual Orientation" section of the survey.[5]

    In the first Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey (CTYHS, open from October 1, 2013 to May 31, 2014), surveying 923 non-cisgender Canadians between the ages of 14–25, 41% of respondents were nonbinary.[6]

    Edmonton[edit | edit source]

    Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta, had a municipal census in 2016 which allowed people to identify as "man/boy", "woman/girl", or "other". 1,212 people selected "other"; this was about 0.135% of the total municipal population (total 899,447).[7]

    In the 2019 Edmonton census, the gender options were changed to "Man/boy", "Woman/girl", "Trans Man", "Trans Woman", "Two-Spirit", "Non-binary", "Another gender", or "Prefer not to answer". The total population was 972,223; 284 people were Two-Spirit, 717 were nonbinary, 289 chose the "another gender" option, and 94,315 people preferred not to answer. This makes a total count of 1,290 people who reported a gender identity that was not a binary gender; that's about 0.133% of the city's population.[8] (The actual count of nonbinary people may be higher due to the large number of people who chose not to report their gender.)

    Ontario[edit | edit source]

    A 2009-2010 survey of 433 trans people in Ontario found that 20% of respondents had a nonbinary identity.[9]

    United Kingdom[edit | edit source]

    According to a 2014 blog post by activist Nat Titman, "at least 0.4% of the UK population defines as nonbinary when given a 3-way choice in terms of female, male or another description", but the count will be higher depending on variations in question phrasing.[10]

    According to the 2021 ONS Census for England and Wales[11], 0.06% of the population is nonbinary, while a further 0.04% wrote in their own responses. 0.24% of respondents did not choose to elaborate past "Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?".

    USA[edit | edit source]

    United States Trans Survey[edit | edit source]

    A large-scale survey of "transgender, trans, genderqueer, and non-binary" people was conducted in 2015: the United States Trans Survey (USTS). In total there were 27,715 respondents, 35% of whom (9,769 people) "indicated that their gender identity was best described as nonbinary or genderqueer." However, a greater number (13,353 people or 48%) answered "Yes" to the question "Do you identify as more than one gender or as no gender?"[12] This echoes Titman's finding above, that question phrasing will affect the reported number of nonbinary/genderqueer people.

    The USTS included a list of gender terms allowing respondents to check off multiple selections, as well as the option to write in a gender that wasn't listed. From this section of the survey:[13]