New report reveals steep decline in transgenderism
A new report is upending assumptions about the direction of gender ideology. After years of rapid growth, the number of U.S. students identifying as transgender has dropped sharply — and the shift appears to be accelerating.
The report, published by Professor Eric Kaufmann at the University of Buckingham, analyzed several datasets and found that, among university students, the share identifying as transgender fell from nearly 7% in 2023 to just under 4% in 2025. The number of students who identify as non-heterosexual also declined by roughly 10 percentage points in the same period — the first significant reversal since tracking began.
The steepest declines were seen among students identifying as queer, pansexual, asexual, or bisexual.
The trend appears generational as well: freshmen are now less likely than seniors to describe themselves as bisexual, trans, or queer — a striking shift from just a few years ago, when those numbers were climbing fast.
Elite schools are showing the most dramatic changes. At Phillips Academy Andover, transgender identification dropped from 9% to 3%, while Brown University saw a fall from 5% to 2.6%. Analysts suggest these declines at top-tier institutions may signal the start of a broader cultural correction. Non-binary identification has also been cut roughly in half since 2022.
When it comes to sexual orientation, bisexual identification peaked around 2022–23 before sliding downward. The “queer” and “other” categories surged through 2023, then collapsed by 2025. Gay and lesbian numbers remained stable at around 3–5%, while heterosexual identification has rebounded strongly, reaching between 77% and 82% this year.
The mental health connection
The report also highlights a connection between gender identity and mental health. While transgender identification declined across all mental health categories, the drop was less pronounced among students reporting depression. In fact, the share of depressed students identifying as non-binary actually rose — from 10.8% in 2024 to 11.6% in 2025.
More than other factors, mental health is what appears to most affect the adoption of gender ideology.
“Trans, queer and bisexual identities are in rapid decline among young educated Americans,” Professor Kaufmann concluded in his report. “This does not appear to be the result of a shift to the right, the return of religion or a rejection of woke culture war attitudes. Despite high correlations between sexual/gender identity and political attitudes within individuals, the over-time trend in gender and sexuality seems relatively independent of political, cultural and religious beliefs. Improving mental health, however, appears to be part of the explanation for the decline of BTQ+ identification.”
