Study: Number of students identifying as nonbinary drops by nearly half in 2 years 

Fewer young people are identifying as nonbinary, according to new research released this month.

Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at the University of Buckingham, compiled multiple student surveys for a report called “The Decline of Trans and Queer Identity among Young Americans.” 

The data show a decline in the number of high school and college students identifying as neither male nor female. 

Kaufmann used surveys from the Higher Education Research Institute, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Phillips Academy in Andover and Brown University. He also included information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2023 survey of U.S. high school students. 

The FIRE survey polled more than 50,000 undergraduates, mostly at major research universities. It found 3.6% of students identified as a gender other than male or female in 2025 – down from 5.2% in 2024 and 6.8% in 2023. 

At Phillips Academy, 3% of students identified as nonbinary this year, compared with 7.4% two years ago. Brown University reported 2.6% of its students identified as neither male nor female, down from 5% in both 2022 and 2023. 

Kaufmann noted the numbers represent those who identify as nonbinary, genderqueer or “questioning or unsure,” not transgender-identifying people who identify as male or female. 

About 2.8 million people in the U.S. identify as transgender, including 724,000 minors, according to the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

In summary, Kaufmann said, “Their findings pointed out that only 3.6% of young adults identified as a gender other than male or female – a steady decline compared to 5.2% last year and 6.8% in 2023.” 

The report shows how patterns of gender identity among young Americans appear to be stabilizing after a sharp rise earlier in the decade.