The Demography of Sweden’s Transgender Population: A Research Note on Patterns, Changes, and Sociodemographics

Martin Kolk; J. Lucas Tilley; Emma von Essen; Ylva Moberg; Ian Burn

doi:10.1215/00703370-11850105

The Demography of Sweden’s Transgender Population: A Research Note on Patterns, Changes, and Sociodemographics

Martin Kolk^*
, J. Lucas Tilley
, Emma von Essen
, Ylva Moberg
, Ian Burn

^*Corresponding author for this work

Social Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We examine the prevalence of gender transitions in Sweden over time and document the sociodemographic characteristics of people transitioning in di ferent peri-ods. Using administrative data covering the transgender population from 1973 through 2020, we analyze two common events in a gender transition: the earliest diagnosis of gender incongruence and the change of legal gender. Our research note presents three main findings. First, the measured prevalence rates of diagnoses and legal gender changes are relatively low in all periods, although they have increased substantially since the early 2010s. Second, the recent increase in transition prevalence is most pro-nounced among people in early adulthood; in particular, young transgender men drive an increase in overall transition rates through 2018, followed by moderate declines in 2019 and 2020. Third, transgender men and women have substantially lower socio-eco nomic outcomes than cisgender men and women, regardless of the age at which they transition or the historical period. They are also considerably less likely to be in a legal union or reside with children. These findings highlight the continued economic and social vulnerability of the transgender population.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	349-363
Number of pages	15
Journal	Demography
Volume	62
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-11850105
Publication status	Published - Apr 2025
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

We are grateful for financial support from the Swedish Research Council (grants 2022-01863 and 2022-02361) and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (grant SO2018-0015). We want to thank Aino-Maija Aalto, Cristina Bratu, Kitt Carpenter, Cecilia Dhejne, Marie Evertsson, Gilbert Gonzales, Stefanie Möllborn, Ely Strömberg, and Maaike van der Vleuten for helpful suggestions and edits. We also received useful feedback from par ticipants of the Economics of LGBTQ+ Individuals Virtual Seminar Series, the 2021 Workshop on Life-Changing Transitions in the LGBTQ+ Community, and the Swedish National Conference on Sociology 2022, as well as members of the SOCPOL and GAINS research groups at SOFI, Stockholm University. Special thanks go to Helena Berglund at FPES for valuable input and to Ana Tramosljanin and Sandra Thiman for excellent research assistance. We are also immensely grateful to everyone at the Swedish gender clinics who generously answered our many questions. Acknowledgments We are grateful for financial support from the Swedish Research Council (grants 2022-01863 and 2022-02361) and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (grant SO2018-0015). We want to thank Aino-Maija Aalto, Cristina Bratu, Kitt Carpenter, Cecilia Dhejne, Marie Evertsson, Gilbert Gonzales, Stefanie Möllborn, Ely Strömberg, and Maaike van der Vleuten for helpful suggestions and edits. We also received useful feedback from participants of the Economics of LGBTQ+ Individuals Virtual Seminar Series, the 2021 Workshop on Life-Changing Transitions in the LGBTQ+ Community, and the Swedish National Conference on Sociology 2022, as well as members of the SOCPOL and GAINS research groups at SOFI, Stockholm University. Special thanks go to Helena Berglund at FPES for valuable input and to Ana Tramosljanin and Sandra Thiman for excellent research assistance. We are also immensely grateful to everyone at the Swedish gender clinics who generously answered our many questions.

Keywords

Administrative data
Demography
Gender incongruence
Sweden
Transgender

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10.1215/00703370-11850105

349kolkFinal published version, 1.02 MB

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2026022014665

Cite this

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title = "The Demography of Sweden{\textquoteright}s Transgender Population: A Research Note on Patterns, Changes, and Sociodemographics",

abstract = "We examine the prevalence of gender transitions in Sweden over time and document the sociodemographic characteristics of people transitioning in di ferent peri-ods. Using administrative data covering the transgender population from 1973 through 2020, we analyze two common events in a gender transition: the earliest diagnosis of gender incongruence and the change of legal gender. Our research note presents three main findings. First, the measured prevalence rates of diagnoses and legal gender changes are relatively low in all periods, although they have increased substantially since the early 2010s. Second, the recent increase in transition prevalence is most pro-nounced among people in early adulthood; in particular, young transgender men drive an increase in overall transition rates through 2018, followed by moderate declines in 2019 and 2020. Third, transgender men and women have substantially lower socio-eco nomic outcomes than cisgender men and women, regardless of the age at which they transition or the historical period. They are also considerably less likely to be in a legal union or reside with children. These findings highlight the continued economic and social vulnerability of the transgender population.",

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doi = "10.1215/00703370-11850105",

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The Demography of Sweden’s Transgender Population: A Research Note on Patterns, Changes, and Sociodemographics

Abstract

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Keywords

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