Important notice

The Office for Statistics Regulation confirmed on 12/09/2024 that the gender identity estimates from Census 2021 are no longer accredited official statistics and are classified as official statistics in development.

For further information please see: Sexual orientation and gender identity quality information for Census 2021

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents aged 16 years and over in England and Wales, by gender identity and sex. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

Particular care must be taken in interpreting census results on gender identity. Please read the Sexual orientation and gender identity quality information for Census 2021 before using this data. Read more about this quality notice.

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Coverage

Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. Data are also available in these geographic types:

• country - for example, Wales
• region - for example, London
• local authority - for example, Cornwall
• health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
• statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA

Gender identity

Classifies people according to the responses to the gender identity question. This question was voluntary and was only asked of people aged 16 years and over.

Sex

This is the sex recorded by the person completing the census. The options were “Female” and “Male”.

Important notice

The Office for Statistics Regulation confirmed on 12/09/2024 that the gender identity estimates from Census 2021 are no longer accredited official statistics and are classified as official statistics in development.

For further information please see: Sexual orientation and gender identity quality information for Census 2021

These datasets provide Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents aged 16 years and over in England and Wales for gender identity by sex, gender identity by age and gender identity by sex and age.

Gender identity

Gender identity refers to a person's sense of their own gender, whether male, female or another category such as non-binary. This may or may not be the same as their sex registered at birth.

Non-binary

Someone who is non-binary does not identify with the binary categories of man and woman. In these results the category includes people who identified with the specific term "non-binary" or variants thereon. However, those who used other terms to describe an identity that was neither specifically man nor woman have been classed in "All other gender identities".

Sex

This is the sex recorded by the person completing the census. The options were "Female" and "Male".

Trans

An umbrella term used to refer to people whose gender identity is different from their sex registered at birth. This includes people who identify as a trans man, trans woman, non-binary or with another minority gender identity.

Trans man

A trans man is someone who was registered female at birth, but now identifies as a man.

Trans woman

A trans woman is someone who was registered male at birth, but now identifies as a woman.

Usual resident

A usual resident is anyone who on Census Day, 21 March 2021, was in the UK and had stayed or intended to stay in the UK for a period of 12 months or more, or had a permanent UK address and was outside the UK and intended to be outside the UK for less than 12 months.

Notes:

• To ensure that individuals cannot be identified in the data, population counts have been rounded to the nearest five and counts under 10 have been suppressed.

• Percentages have been calculated using rounded data.

These datasets provide Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents aged 16 years and over in England and Wales by gender identity, age and sex.

Population broken down by age, gender and whether living in a household or communal establishment. Census Area Statistics Table CAS001 Source: Census 2001 Publisher: Nomis Geographies: Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA), Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA), Local Authority District (LAD), Government Office Region (GOR), National, Parliamentary Constituency, Urban area Geographic coverage: England and Wales Time coverage: 2001 Type of data: Survey (census)

Population broken down by age, gender and whether living in a couple or not. Data is counted for the household head only. Census Area Statistics Table CAS005 Source: Census 2001 Publisher: Nomis Geographies: Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA), Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA), Local Authority District (LAD), Government Office Region (GOR), National, Parliamentary Constituency, Urban area Geographic coverage: England and Wales Time coverage: 2001 Type of data: Survey (census)

Number of pupils in state-funded nursery, primary, secondary and special schools, non-maintained special schools and AP schools by SEN provision, type of need, age and sex.

Initial Participation (HEIP30, HEIP20, HEIP60) by gender.

All people aged 16 and over resident in households by whether they are living as a part of a same-sex couple (two people of the same sex identifying the other as partner) Source: Census 2001 Publisher: Neighbourhood Statistics Geographies: Local Authority District (LAD), Government Office Region (GOR), National Geographic coverage: England and Wales Time coverage: 2001 Type of data: Survey (census) Notes: A same-sex couple consists of two people of the same sex identifying the other as partner. Following the publication of results on living arrangements, the Office for National Statistics carried out an exercise to estimate the number of same-sex couples as shown in this table. These results are not strictly comparable with other results on living arrangements. The population of this table is all people aged 16 and over living in households.

Numbers of jobs in an area by gender, and whether an employee or self-employed. This data shows the number of jobs, not the number of people. People with more than one job are counted more than once. Figures may not add up due to rounding. Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place and were calculated on unrounded figures. Employees - An employee is anyone aged 16 years or over that an organisation directly pays from its payroll(s), in return for carrying out a full-time or part-time job or being on a training scheme. It excludes voluntary workers, self-employed and working owners who are not paid via PAYE People who are self-employed in a second job are included in the self-employed totals. Self-employment data is taken from the Annual Population Survey, and is by place of work. The micro data is available from the UK Data Archive. The male/female split for employee jobs was taken from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings data from NOMISweb.co.uk. These proportions were then applied to the BRES employee totals since the ASHE is a not a reliable source for total employee jobs. See more on the BRES website. Modelled estimates and projections of jobs are available in the GLA Employment Projections. These are considered to be the most accurate jobs estimates at borough level.

Population broken down by age, gender and whether single or married. Data is counted for the household head only. Census Area Statistics Table CAS003 Source: Census 2001 Publisher: Nomis Geographies: Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA), Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA), Local Authority District (LAD), Government Office Region (GOR), National, Parliamentary Constituency, Urban area Geographic coverage: England and Wales Time coverage: 2001 Type of data: Survey (census)

Population by sex Source: Census 2001 Publisher: Neighbourhood Statistics Geographies: Output Area (OA), Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA), Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA), Ward, Local Authority District (LAD), Government Office Region (GOR), National Geographic coverage: England and Wales Time coverage: 2001 Type of data: Survey (census)

This dataset consists of 126 semi-structured (including 5 unstructured interviews) and a public survey to explore current understandings of legal sex/gender and attitudes towards its decertification. Decertification is used in this project to mean that people would no longer have a legal sex or gender (birth certificates, for instance, would no longer register a baby’s sex).

Interviews were mostly conducted in-person prior to covid. After March 2020, they were undertaken via online platforms. The transcripts include interviews with a wide range of stakeholders exploring the implications of reform to legal sex and gender certification. Interviews also addressed organisations’ current practice in relation to the use of sex and gender categories, their response to gender identities such as agender and nonbinary, the challenges that innovation in this area face, and the question of how an identity-based approach to gender could combine with one attentive to structural gender inequalities. Predominantly semi-structured interviews were conducted with 1) Members of different publics using tailored interview methods to explore continuity, change and disruption in understandings and interpretations of gender (and its relationship to sex) across social and legal contexts; 2) public bodies, service providers, NGOs, regulatory bodies, religious communities, trade unions, legislative drafters, academics, and others working in related fields.

A number of interviews were carried out for this research project that have not been archived. This is for several reasons, including in a few cases technological failure. However, one recurrent reason for non-archiving relates to the inability of organisational interviews to be sufficiently anonymised and the currently contentious nature of gender/ sex law reform discussions. In some cases, despite giving initial permission to archive when the interview was carried out, interviewees subsequently requested that their interview not be archived.

The dataset also consists of a survey which explores wider public perceptions of reforming legal sex and gender. The ‘Attitudes to Gender’ survey was conducted as part of the ‘implications for the wider public’ strand of the Future of Legal Gender research project and focused on asking questions to gain a better understanding of what legal sex and gender status means for people, and whether it matters to individuals in their everyday lives. The survey ran from October to December 2018 in partial overlap with the UK Government’s public consultation on potential reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA) in England and Wales. We chose to develop the survey questionnaire ourselves rather than use pre-existing measures so we could ensure the survey mapped well onto the overall aims and objectives of the project. Sampling was opportunistic. We received 3101 usable responses to the survey. Some demographic data was collected and analysed (e.g. age, class, ethnicity, sexual preference, religion) but removed from this SSPS data set for anonymity purposes.

Feminist activists and scholars have long questioned the idea that gender is anchored in natural biological distinctions, arguing instead that concepts of masculine and feminine, and what it means to be a woman or man, are socially generated. More recently, some transgender and intersex activists and scholars have developed these claims further, arguing that people's gender identities should not be restricted to the sex formally recorded at birth. As many people seek to live in ways that do not correspond to stereotypical notions of their gender or otherwise diverge from the sex and gender assigned them, law in different jurisdictions has responded. Gender-neutral laws, procedures for gender transitioning, and legal decisions recognising the possibility of nonbinary gender identities unsettle traditional legal regimes based on two, biologically fixed, socially differentiated genders. Yet, while reform initiatives internationally gain momentum, they tend to be limited in two key respects: first, they typically adopt an ad hoc or incremental approach to legal gender identity structures; second, they focus on legal accommodation of gender minorities within existing classificatory structures rather than more general reform.

Legal and policy developments, the gender activism surrounding them (with all its internal disagreements, including over the meaning of biological sex), and the rapid upsurge of wider interest and concern about how to regulate and recognise gender identity have brought a more fundamental question to the surface: should sex remain a legal status assigned at birth; and what would be the implications of reforming this? Our project addressed this question, focusing on the legal jurisdiction of England & Wales, but drawing also on developments in Scotland and overseas. Research was organised into three consecutive work packages. The first drew on international developments and activist arguments to outline possible options for reform (for instance, birth certificates with more than two sex or gender options; allowing people to choose a legal gender on maturity; or modes of regulation that approach gender and sex in ways that are more akin to the legal treatment of sexual orientation and race which are not formal statuses in English law while still constituting protected equality grounds). The second work package focused on “decertification” as one specific reform proposal. It explored what decertification would mean: for gender-differentiated provision, such as single-sex schools, domestic violence shelters, and women's groups; for diverse equality agendas; and for how gender and sex are codified in law. This second work package also explored public attitudes to reform, and what this can tell us about the significance of legal gender in everyday life. The final work package drew the research together to understand key points of disagreement and tension regarding decertification as a law reform proposal in a British context. In this work package, we also produced a series of prototypes exploring legislative principles for decertification law reform.

Decertification – the dismantling of legal sex status - involves removing sex from birth certificates so people no longer have a legal sex or (corresponding) gender status. It also entails other changes to regulatory laws that rely on sex and gender-specific terms. Adopting a multi-methods approach, research data included a public survey, online documentary materials, and interviews with NGOs, policymakers, equality specialists, trade unions, legislative drafters, and members of different publics. Through meetings, workshops and the prototyping of legislative principles, the project actively engaged stakeholders in shaping and discussing research questions, analyses, and the possible legal form that decertification could take. Research findings, analysis and conclusions are disseminated through special issues (in refereed journals), other refereed journal articles, our website, blog posts, presentations, and social and mainstream media. A detailed public report was produced at the end of the project, Cooper, D., Emerton, R., Grabham, E., Newman, H.J.H., Peel., E., Renz, F. & Smith, J. (2022) Abolishing legal sex status: The challenge and consequences of gender related law reform. Future of Legal Gender Project. Final Report. King’s College London, UK.