A 2022 survey shows roughly 1.6 percent of American adults are now transgender or nonbinary. That number is higher still among young adults, with 5 percent of people under 30 now identifying their gender as different from the one assigned to them at birth. The growing visibility of transgender and nonbinary people comes amid rising societal acceptance and new efforts to count the populations. One landmark study found 1.2 million nonbinary people in the 18-60 age group. Of that total, three-quarters were under 30, which suggests Generation Z has explored gender identity to the extent that older Americans have not. Kay Simon, 28, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota who studies the experiences of queer youth and their families says, “We have a world in which we are finally counting these groups. You can’t identify as something if you don’t know what the word is.”
