Quality Assurance report - Sexual orientation and trans status or history

Background

This report accompanies the publication of Scotland’s Census 2022 sexual orientation and trans status or history topic data. It builds on the quality assurance reports published alongside the rounded population estimates in September 2023 and the unrounded population estimates and ethnic group, national identity, language and religion data in May 2024.

Voluntary questions

The questions on sexual orientation and trans status or history were new for the 2022 census and were voluntary for those aged 16 and over. For sexual orientation, 8.15% of the population aged 16 and over did not provide a response and for trans status or history this figure was 5.92%.

Information on response and imputation rates for this topic have also been published on the Scotland’s Census website.

Our approach to imputation is different for voluntary questions. Not stating a sexual orientation or trans status or history are valid responses. Therefore we do not generally impute a response for those who responded to the census but did not answer these questions. In a small number of cases, imputation was used where a respondent was filtered past a question due to an initially inconsistent response that was later changed.

We do impute sexual orientation and trans status or history for those who did not respond at all to the census so that the results for this question cover everyone aged 16 and over. 'Not stated’ is one of the values that can be imputed for these individuals. More information on our edit and imputation method is available on the Scotland’s Census website.

Percentages are calculated using the overall population (aged 16 and over), not just those who answered the question.

Trans status or history

People with a trans status or history in Scotland and people with a gender identity different from their sex registered at birth in England & Wales are referred to as trans people throughout this report. This is broadly in line with the terminology used by National Records of Scotland (NRS) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) when reporting their results.

Comparison with data on gender identity from the 2021 census in England & Wales

The censuses in Scotland and in England & Wales asked different questions. In Scotland in 2022, the question asked was ‘Do you consider yourself to be trans, or have a trans history?’. In the 2021 census in England & Wales, the following question was asked, ‘Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?’. More information on the question development for Scotland is published in the sex and gender identity topic report on the Scotland’s Census 2022 website and for England & Wales in the sex and gender identity question development for Census 2021 report on the ONS website.

Other differences to consider are that the question for 2022 in Scotland included the prompt for people to describe their trans status or history with the examples of non-binary, trans man, trans woman given in that order. The England & Wales 2021 census did not include any examples of gender identities. The Scotland 2022 question also included a brief definition of trans on the questionnaire, whereas England & Wales 2021 did not include a definition of gender identity on the questionnaire. Following additional user testing, this question was asked directly after the sex question on the census form in Scotland, but was asked later in the census form in England & Wales.

The nature of the write-in responses recorded for each question was similar. NRS and ONS have used five similar high level categories to group responses when reporting. These are paraphrased below:

• non-binary
• trans man
• trans woman
• other trans status/gender identity
• trans status/gender identity not specified

However it is important to note again that the questions were different. They used different terminology and were asked at different points in the census form. Looking at the data collected, we see that the relative level of trans responses and the distribution across the five high level categories was different.

Table 1 shows that the proportion of trans people in Scotland in 2022 was 0.44%, lower than the 0.54% in England & Wales in 2021. The percentage of people not providing an answer to these questions was 5.92% in Scotland and 6.00% in England & Wales.

Table 1: Percentage of trans people, Scotland 2022 and England & Wales 2021

Trans people by English language proficiency

In their October 2023 review of statistics on gender identity, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) stated “Following the first release, concerns were raised with ONS and the OSR about the published estimates of the transgender population. As additional breakdowns were published, these concerns extended to the relationship between gender identity and proficiency in English.” ONS have published additional breakdowns of their gender identity data by English language proficiency in response to this feedback. 

We have provided similar breakdowns of data from Scotland’s Census below. Due to small numbers in some of these categories, we have grouped together those who speak English very well or well, and those who speak English not well or not at all. Table 2 shows the number of people by English language proficiency and response to the trans status or history question.

Table 2: Number of people by English language proficiency and response to the trans status or history question

Table 3 shows the percentage of trans people and not stated grouped by English language proficiency. The table shows 0.43% of people whose main language was English were trans. For those who had a main language other than English and spoke English very well or well, 0.65% were trans with the majority of these people identifying as non-binary. While for those who had a main language other than English and did not speak English well or not at all, 0.47% were trans.

People with a main language other than English, but who speak English very well or well have a younger age profile than the other two categories. There was a higher proportion of trans people amongst younger age groups than the overall population.

The proportion of trans people (0.47%) among people who did not speak English well or not at all was similar to the proportion among people whose main language is English (0.43%). This group has the highest proportion of not stated at 7.07%.

Table 3: Percentage of trans people by English language proficiency

Comparison with the England & Wales 2021 census by trans category

There are larger differences between the two censuses in some of the high level categories that responses were grouped into. Figure 1 shows the proportion of the 16+ population that were trans in Scotland and England & Wales by trans category.

The category with the largest difference is people who were trans and did not provide a specific gender identity or trans status, with 0.07% of people in Scotland compared with 0.24% in England & Wales in this category. The relatively large difference between Scotland and England & Wales in this category is largely responsible for the difference in the overall proportion of trans people highlighted above. The difference in this category may be due to the differences in the question asked, as described in more detail earlier in this report.

There is also a relatively large difference in the non-binary category, where the proportion of people in Scotland is higher at 0.20%, compared with 0.06% in England & Wales. This difference may be due to the inclusion of non-binary as an example of a trans status on the questionnaire in Scotland.

Overall, these results reflect the fact that the way in which these questions were asked in the two censuses was different and users should be cautious when interpreting differences between Scotland and England & Wales. In the coming months, ONS and NRS will work together to compare the performance of the two questions and use this to inform future developments.

Trans people by sex

Information on the sex question and data quality is available in the quality assurance report published alongside the rounded population estimates in September 2023.  The guidance that accompanied the sex question stated ‘If you are transgender the answer you give can be different from what is on your birth certificate. You do not need a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). If you are non-binary or you are not sure how to answer, you could use the sex registered on your official documents, such as your passport. A voluntary question about trans status or history will follow if you are aged 16 or over. You can respond as non-binary in that question.’ The proportion of respondents who accessed this guidance was very small at 0.13%.

Table 4 shows that 0.39% of people whose sex was male and 0.49% whose sex was female were trans. Males also had a slightly higher percentage of not stated than females at 6.29%, compared with 5.57% for females.

Table 4: Percentage of trans people by sex

Figure 2 shows that the 0.39% of males aged 16 and over who were trans is made up of 0.09% trans men, 0.05% trans women, 0.15% non-binary people, 0.07% trans status not specified and 0.03% people with another trans status.

For females aged 16 and over, the 0.49% of people who were trans is made up of 0.05% trans men, 0.08% trans women, 0.25% non-binary people, 0.07% trans status not specified and 0.04% people with another trans status.

This shows that the overall difference in the proportion of trans people between males and females is largely driven by a higher proportion of females (0.25%) identifying as non-binary than males (0.15%).

Trans History

During development of this question trans respondents noted that including ‘trans history’ in the question was important. Some people who have a trans history may not identify as trans now. For example, some people with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).

Coding of trans status or history responses

‘No’ and ‘Yes’ tick boxes were provided on the census questionnaire. For those who ticked yes to having a trans status or history, further space was provided to write in their specific trans status or history.

People who ticked no or yes and did not provide any write-in response were automatically coded into the appropriate category. For people who did provide a write-in response, these responses were automatically coded where they exactly matched our coding specification. Responses that did not exactly match were manually reviewed and coded to the appropriate category.

When coding responses manually, both the tick box and write-in text response provided were considered. For example, if a person wrote ‘man’ and ticked ‘no’, they were coded to ‘not trans and does not have a trans history’. If a person wrote ‘man’ and ticked ‘yes’, they were coded to ‘trans man’.

Where responses included more than one distinct category we have used a first codable response methodology. This means a person who responded 'Non-binary Trans Man' will be included in the 'Non-binary' category only. This is consistent with how other write-in questions in the census are processed.

People who provided a sexual orientation in response to the trans status or history question were coded to ‘not trans and does not have a trans history’.

We have published more information on write-in responses on our website. The list includes responses from people who were coded to a trans category (trans man, trans woman, non-binary, trans status: not specified and other trans status or history). The list does not include people who were not coded to one of the five high level trans categories. The list does not include people who only provided a tick response and no text.

The list only includes write-in responses that were provided by at least 10 people. The write-in numbers only contain information from people who responded to the census and provided a write-in response, they do not represent the total population in each category.

Sexual orientation

Comparison with data from the 2021 censuses in England & Wales and Northern Ireland

The 2021 censuses in England & Wales and Northern Ireland also asked a question on sexual orientation. The question was the same, except Northern Ireland included a tick box for prefer not to say, whereas the 2021 England & Wales and Scotland 2022 censuses did not; instead there was a note that the question was voluntary.

Table 5 shows the percentage of the population by sexual orientation for each of the UK censuses. Scotland had a slightly lower percentage of the population who were straight or heterosexual at 87.8% than England & Wales at 89.4% and Northern Ireland at 90.0%.

Scotland estimated the highest percentage of the population who were lesbian, gay, bisexual or another sexual orientation (LGB+) in the UK at 4.0%. This compares with 3.2% in England & Wales and 2.1% in Northern Ireland.

Scotland also had a slightly higher percentage of the population not stating their sexual orientation at 8.2%, compared with 7.9% in Northern Ireland (includes those who responded prefer not to say) and 7.5% in England & Wales.

Table 5: Percentage of people by sexual orientation and UK census

1 For Northern Ireland, this also includes prefer not to say.

Coding of sexual orientation responses

Tick boxes were provided on the census questionnaire for people with a ‘Straight / Heterosexual’, ‘Gay or Lesbian’ and ‘Bisexual’ sexual orientation. For people with Other sexual orientation a further tick box was provided along with space to write in their sexual orientation.

Respondents who ticked Straight / Heterosexual, Gay or Lesbian, Bisexual or Other sexual orientation and did not provide a write-in response were automatically coded into one of these categories. For those who provided a write-in response, some responses were automatically coded where they exactly matched our coding specification. For those that did not exactly match, these were manually reviewed and coded to the appropriate category.

Where responses include more than one distinct category we have used a first codable response methodology. This means a response of 'Gay Asexual' will be categorised as 'Gay or Lesbian' only. This is consistent with how other write-in questions are processed from the census.

Respondents who provided a trans status to the sexual orientation question were coded to ‘other sexual orientation’.

We have published more information on write-in responses on our website. This includes a list of write-in responses that were received for this question that were provided by at least 10 respondents. These only include people who responded to census and provided a write-in response, they do not represent the total population in each category.