1 in 4 of those claiming to be transgender are aged 13-17

(Daily Caller News Foundation) – More than 3% of youth aged 13 to 17 now think they are transgender, a new report released Wednesday found.

A whopping 724,000 kids over the age of 13 in the United States and 2.1 million adults claim to be transgender, a new report from the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute found. The numbers amount to 3.3% of children and 0.8% of adults.

Younger people are still far more likely to claim a transgender identity than older adults, the Institute reported, with 76% of those over 13 who claim the identity under the age of 35. Despite making up only 8% of the overall population, 13 to 17-year-olds make up 25% of those claiming to be transgender.

Some studies have found that an increasing number of people identifying as transgender — especially young girls — could be due to social contagion. One 2023 study found that more than half of teen girls who claim to be transgender had friends who also claimed to be transgender, and that teens of both sexes were more likely to claim a transgender identity when they have friends who are also transgender.

“Younger generations are more likely to identify as transgender, and we expect that trend to continue,” Jody Herman, senior scholar of public policy at the Williams Institute and lead author of the report, said in a press release. “Youth and young adults are more likely to identify as transgender due to a variety of factors, including a greater willingness among younger individuals to disclose that they identify as transgender on surveys.”

The breakdown of men who think they are women, women who think they are men and those who claim a “nonbinary” identity appears to be equal, the report shows.

The Williams Institute, part of the UCLA School of Law, aims to “ensure that facts—not stereotypes—inform laws, policies, and judicial decisions that affect the LGBT community,” according to its website.

President Donald Trump signed a day one executive order declaring the federal government will recognize only the two biological sexes. In response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it will no longer track transgender identity in its data.