'Historic' census data sheds light on number of trans and non-binary people for first time

Statistics Canada in its second release of data from the 2021 census has given a comprehensive tally of how many cisgender men and women, transgender and non-binary people live in Canada.

Of the more than 30.5 million Canadians aged 15 and over who were counted on the census, 100,815 of them identify as transgender or non-binary. That's 0.33 per cent of the total population, or about one in 300 people.

Generation Z Canadians, aged 17 to 24 years, were seven times more likely to identify as trans or non-binary than those in the oldest generation, aged 76 years and older.

Statistics Canada says this new way of reporting information is important because Canadians are evolving on how they identify themselves, and the census needs to reflect that.

The binary male/female sex question on previous censuses was split in two. One question asked respondents to give the sex they were assigned at birth, which remained male and female. The next question asked for respondents' gender identity, providing male and female as an option and allowing people to specify if they identified as something else.

"The main reason for that is to reflect growing social and legislative recognition of transgender and non-binary people in Canada. And it's also a response to feedback that we received," said France-Pascale Ménard, a data analyst on the census.

Ménard called the question "historic" as Canada is the first country in the world to collect and report numbers of people who identify solely as trans and non-binary.

The data now gives the opportunity for governments, businesses and other organizations to cater services to the trans and non-binary communities in Canada.

But some in the in the transgender community see it as just a first step.

"Quite frankly, they're behind the eight ball," said Calgary transgender advocate Anna Murphy. "This is something that they should have done many years ago. They're now just getting around to it. It's great to see it. But quite frankly, it's stuff that should have been done."

Murphy says she wants to see more government and private sector action based on the data, such providing better quality and affirming health care for trans people, addressing underemployment and unemployment and other inequities gender diverse people face.

As the numbers show, only having two options for gender or sex excludes more than 100,000 Canadians from a key detail on the census, which Statistics Canada has tried to correct.

To learn more about gender identity, listen to They & Us, an award-winning CBC podcast that explores first-person stories of transgender and non-binary Canadians, available now on CBC Listen, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.