Fewer young people identifying as transgender, report says

Transgender and so-called queer identities are declining among young Americans, according to a recent report released through England’s Buckingham University and the Centre for Heterodox Social Science. Transgender identities among college students peaked in 2023 at about 7% and have since dropped to about 4%, according to the report. The share of students claiming non-heterosexual identities—gay, bisexual, asexual, or pansexual—also dropped by about 10 percentage points during that period.

The report by Professor Eric Kaufmann combined and analyzed results from several large-scale youth surveys, which included input from more than 50,000 college students per year, as well as thousands of high schoolers.

The decline was most pronounced among students at elite universities and in the 2025 and 2026 graduating classes. College freshmen showed lower levels of transgender identity or alternative sexual orientation than did graduating seniors, according to the report.

What’s behind the shift? Gender and sexuality trends didn’t seem directly correlated to changes in political, cultural, or religious beliefs, according to the report. Those factors remained mostly stable among young people during the last five years. But improving mental health among young people was likely one contributing factor, the report’s analysis found.

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Canterberry’s report on the case of an Irish teacher barred from his school for refusing to use preferred pronouns.