The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) has launched a formal probe into evidence that the transgender population has been ‘substantially’ overestimated in the 2021 census.
The statistics regulator said it was reviewing findings that there are 262,000 transgender people in England and Wales after concerns were raised over “the correlation of gender identity with other characteristics”.
Academics have challenged the figure because the question on gender identity may have confused respondents whose main language was not English.
Not valid
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) census found that one in 67 Muslims claimed to be transgender.
And the London boroughs of Newham and Brent, where English is a second language for many, recorded the highest proportion of trans people in the country.
Director of Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Professor Carl Heneghan said: “I think the information in this category is invalid so it’s welcome that they’re going to review it.”
“They need to set out a strategy so we don’t see this problem again. The error is so great that I think it will be deemed invalid.”
Quality control
Professor Alice Sullivan, Head of Research at the UCL Social Research Institute, also welcomed the OSR’s intervention.
She said the “anomalies in the 2021 census data call into question whether the data produced on gender identity” meet the quality standard set out in the Code of Practice for official statistics.
Paul Bristow MP said: “Official statistics are incredibly important because they help government and agencies design services.
“If they are proven to be wholly inaccurate, this could mean policies being created and public money being spent in ways which do not necessarily reflect local communities and wider society.”
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