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Transgender Population and Number of Transgender Employees

People who experience or express their gender differently from conventional or cultural expectations can encounter complex and unique challenges and stigma throughout their personal and professional lives. A supportive and respectful work environment is critical for transgender people, wherever they may be in the process of living consistently with their gender identity.

This publication focuses primarily on people who have or who plan to transition genders, many of whom identify as transsexual and many of whom have undergone or are undergoing medical treatment — such as hormone therapy and sometimes surgery — to align their bodies with their internal sense of gender. But transgender people also employ non-medical methods to live and express themselves consistently with their gender identity, such as wearing preferred-gender clothing and body-shaping garments, adjusting mannerisms and speech patterns, and asking friends and family to call them by their preferred names and pronouns.

Whereas most employees can choose whether to disclose certain personal information at work, people who plan to stay with the same employer while transitioning clearly do not have that option. Given that an employee is, almost without exception, obligated to disclose or "come out" to his/her employer in order to live full-time in his/her new gender, employers necessarily become involved in an employee’s transition.

Transgender Population

There are no concrete statistics on the number of transgender people in the United States. Estimates on the number of transsexual people, which ignore the broader transgender population, range anywhere from 0.25 to 1 percent of the U.S. population. These estimates are dated and likely undercount the transsexual population because, for example, they do not account for people who have not yet undergone, cannot (for medical, financial, safety or other reasons) or choose not to undergo sex reassignment surgeries. The most-cited estimates have been based on counts of people who have undergone sex-reassignment under the care of certain European clinics.[i]

  • In 1994, the American Psychiatric Association reported that "data from small countries in Europe with access to total population statistics and referrals suggest that roughly 1 per 30,000 adult males and 1 per 100,000 adult females seek sex reassignment surgeries."[ii]
  • In 1986, researchers in the Netherlands, which offers transgender-related health benefits in its universal healthcare plan, calculated the prevalence of male-to-female transsexualism at 1 in 18,000 and female-to-male at 1 in 54,000.[iii] A follow-up study from 1996 cited prevalence at 1 in 11,900 males and 1 in 30,400 females.[iv]
  • In 2002, Lynn Conway, a professor at the University of Michigan, estimated male-to-female transsexualism in the United States to be in the range of 1 in 500 to 1 in 2,500.[v]

T.M. Witten, Executive Director of the TranScience Research Institute, focused on the broader transgender spectrum and found that, of a random international sample, 8 percent of respondents self-identified as something other than strictly "male" or "female."[vi]

Some employers have attempted to determine the size of their transgender employee population through engagement surveys or surveys of employee resource group members that allow employees to self-identify based on gender identity

According to a survey by J.P. Morgan Chase, 325 of its 160,000 employees, or roughly 0.2 percent, self-identify as transgender.[vii] This relatively small number is consistent with the general issue of unemployment or underemployment among transgender people.

"A defense attorney might think of it this way: if your clients’ employees total in the thousands, chances are you will eventually need to counsel a client about a transsexual employee’s rights."
— Neil Dishman, Jackson Lewis LLP[viii]

Gender Non-Conforming and Gender-Variant Employees

The transgender population includes many who do not identify as transsexual but whose appearance does not conform to gender stereotypes. Gender stereotypes can affect any number of people — from women who appear to be "too masculine" to men who appear to be "too feminine." Protections based on gender identity help create the reasonable expectation of a safe environment in which all employees are evaluated by their performance rather than others’ perceptions of or comfort with their gender.

Stealth Transgender Employees

Employers may have transgender employees that they are not aware of. People who have transitioned in the past — prior to working with a particular employer — may never need or choose to disclose their transgender status to their employer. People who live in "stealth" do not disclose their transgender status for various reasons, including concerns about discrimination or harassment, and are indistinguishable from non-transgender people. These employees have most likely been able to change most of their documentation and government records to match their gender identity, but employers should nonetheless strive to ensure these employees’ privacy

Transgender Family Members of Employees

Employers may also have employees with a transgender spouse, partner, child or other family member. Issues such as non-discrimination policies and access to comprehensive healthcare are often as important for employees with transgender family members as they are to transgender employees themselves.

  • Resources for People with Transgender Family Members


[i]Femke Olyslager and Lynn Conway, "On the Calculation of the Prevalance of Transsexualism," Sep. 6, 2007. Available at: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Prevalence/Reports/Prevalence%20of%20Transsexualism.pdf.

[ii] American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. (Washington D.C.: American Psychiatric Publishing Inc.), 1994 (p. 535).

[iii] P.L. Eklund, L.J.G. Gooren, and P.D. Bezemer, "Prevalence of transsexualism in the Netherlands," British Journal of Psychiatry 152, 1988 (pp. 638-640).

[iv] P.J. Van Kesteren, L.J.G. Gooren., and J.A. Megens, "An epidemiological and demographic study of transsexuals in the Netherlands" Archives of Sexual Behavior 25, no. 6, December 1996 (pp. 589-600).

[v] Lynn Conway, "How Frequently Does Transsexualism Occur?" Available at: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/TSprevalence.html.

[vi] Tarynn M. Witten, "Transgender aging: An emerging population and an emerging need," Review Sexologies, XII, no. 4 (2003): 15-20.

[vii] Bill Leonard, "Transgender Issues Could Push Diversity Envelope for Some Employers," HR News, Apr. 19, 2007. Available at: www.shrm.org/diversity/library_published/nonIC/CMS_021265.asp.

[viii] Neil Dishman, "The Expanding Rights of Transsexuals in the Workplace," The Labor Lawyer, Volume 21, Number 2, Fall 2005. Available at: http://www.bna.com/bnabooks/ababna/laborlawyer/21.2.pdf.