Fewer than 1 in 200 Scots aged over 16 identify as ‘trans’

Only a tiny minority of over-16s in Scotland identify as “trans” or having a “trans history”, new census figures have revealed.

Scotland’s 2022 Census gave the public the option to record their ‘gender identity’ and ‘sexual orientation’ for the first time, in addition to a compulsory question asking people to self-identify whether their sex was male or female.

Just 0.44 per cent of Scots claimed to be “trans”, 46 per cent of whom were between 16 and 24 years old. Almost half (45 per cent) of “trans people” identified as “non-binary”, while 32 per cent claimed to be the opposite sex.

Minority

The census found that those identifying as LGBT formed a greater proportion of the population in cities with higher numbers of young people and students, such as Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee.

When asked to describe which term “best describes your sexual orientation”, 88 per cent of the public identified as “straight/heterosexual”.

In contrast, just four per cent reported that they were “lesbian”, “gay”, “bisexual”, or “other sexual orientation”. Those who answered “other” used terms such as “pansexual” and “asexual”.

Toddler

In 2022, a Scottish Census helpline agent told a parent who was raising their child to be “gender neutral” to enter what they felt was the ‘best fit’ for their toddler’s sex.

Guidance explained that those completing the census on someone else’s behalf could choose which sex to record, regardless of the sex registered on their birth certificate or on a gender recognition certificate.

Scotsman columnist Susan Dalgety commented: “What kind of government allows parents to ‘choose’ the sex of their child for census purposes, regardless of reality.”