Census data on Canada’s transgender and non-binary population: By the numbers

For the first time, Statistics Canada differentiated between “sex at birth” and “gender” in the 2021 census. Here are some key figures from Wednesday’s release of the results.

— 1 in 300 Canadians over the age of 15 — 100,815 people — have a gender that differs from their sex assigned at birth.

— 41,355 people in that age group are non-binary.

— 31,555 are transgender women.

— 27,905 are transgender men.

— Younger people are far more likely than older people to report being transgender. Some 0.85 per cent of people aged 20 to 24 are non-binary or transgender. 

— Nova Scotia (0.48 per cent), Yukon (0.47 per cent) and British Columbia (0.44 per cent) have the highest proportions of transgender and non-binary people aged 15 and older among provinces and territories. 

— 52.7 per cent of non-binary people aged 15 and older live in one of Canada’s six largest urban centres. 

— 15.3 per cent of non-binary people live in Toronto. 

— 15.5 per cent of non-binary people live in the downtown core of a large urban centre, compared to 7 per cent of transgender people and 4.7 per cent of non-transgender people.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 27, 2022.

The Canadian Press