Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

U.S. teens are less likely than adults to know a trans person, more likely to know someone who’s nonbinary

More than 5% of U.S. high school students are either transgender or questioning their gender identity, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Against this backdrop, we asked American teens whether they know someone who is trans or nonbinary.

A bar chart showing that teens are less likely than adults to say they know a trans person, more likely to know someone who is nonbinary.

Fewer than four-in-ten say they do: 36% say they know someone who’s transgender, and 28% know someone who’s nonbinary.

Compared with U.S. adults, teens are somewhat more likely to say they know someone who is nonbinary. And they’re somewhat less likely to say they know someone who is transgender. Four-in-ten adults say they know someone who’s transgender, and 23% know someone who’s nonbinary.

We also asked teens and adults about how they view issues related to gender identity. Majorities of both groups say a person’s gender is determined by their sex at birth. And teens are about as likely as adults to say they are comfortable with the use of gender-neutral pronouns.

This analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 conducted in fall 2024, as well as two Center surveys of U.S. adults ages 18 and older conducted in spring and fall 2024. The surveys were conducted before the 2024 presidential election.

How we did this

Pew Research Center asked these questions as part of a larger survey of U.S. teens. We sought to better understand teens’ views of gender identity and whether they know someone who is transgender or nonbinary.

The survey was conducted online with 1,391 U.S. teens from Sept. 18 to Oct. 10, 2024, through Ipsos. Ipsos recruited the teens via their parents, who were part of its KnowledgePanel. The KnowledgePanel is a probability-based web panel recruited primarily through national, random sampling of residential addresses. The survey was weighted to be representative of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 who live with their parents by age, gender, race and ethnicity, household income, and other categories.

This analysis also includes data from two surveys of U.S. adults conducted in 2024: one conducted April 8-14 among 8,709 adults and the other Sept. 3-15 among 6,204 adults. Most of the respondents are members of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. The September survey also included an oversample of Black and Hispanic adults from the SSRS Opinion Panel, another probability-based online survey web panel recruited primarily through national, random sampling of residential addresses.

The surveys of adults were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. They are weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.

The teens survey was reviewed and approved by an external institutional review board (IRB), Advarra, an independent committee of experts specializing in helping to protect the rights of research participants.

Here are the questions we asked teens, along with responses, and the survey methodology­­­.

Here are the questions we asked adults in September, the topline and the survey methodology.

The questions we asked adults in April, along with responses, can be found in this topline. Here is the survey methodology

Knowing someone who is transgender or nonbinary

Older teens – those ages 15 to 17 – are more likely than younger teens to say they know someone who is trans or nonbinary. Older teen girls are especially likely to say this.

A bar chart showing that older teens, younger adults are among the most likely age groups to know someone who is trans or nonbinary.

Among teens ages 15 to 17:

  • 49% of girls say they know someone who is transgender, compared with 32% of boys.
  • 37% of girls say they know someone who is nonbinary, compared with 25% of boys.

Among teens ages 13 to 14:

  • 37% of girls say they know someone who is transgender, compared with 20% of boys.
  • 27% of girls say they know someone who is nonbinary, compared with 14% of boys.

There are also age differences among adults. Those ages 18 to 49 are more likely than those ages 50 and older to say they know someone who is transgender or nonbinary. And adults younger than 30 are especially likely to say they know someone who is nonbinary – more likely even than teens. 

For teens and adults alike, those who identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party are more likely than those who identify with or lean toward the Republican Party to say they know someone who is transgender or nonbinary.

Among teens:

  • 41% of Democrats say they know someone who’s transgender, compared with 32% of Republicans.
  • 32% of Democrats say they know someone who’s nonbinary, compared with 24% of Republicans.

Among adults:

  • 47% of Democrats and 33% of Republicans say they know a transgender person.
  • 32% of Democrats and 16% of Republicans say they know a nonbinary person.

Overall, 47% of teens in the survey are Democrats or lean Democratic, while 45% are Republicans or lean toward the GOP. Among adults, 48% identify as or lean Democratic, and the same share identifies as or lean Republican.

Is a person’s gender determined by sex at birth, or can it differ?

A diverging bar chart showing that most teens and adults say a person’s gender is determined by sex at birth.

Most teens (69%) say that whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth. Another 30% say a person’s gender can be different from their sex at birth.

Similarly, 65% of adults say a person’s gender is determined by their sex at birth, while 33% say gender and sex can differ.

Democratic teens are divided on this question: 50% say gender is determined by sex at birth, and 49% say gender and sex can be different. By comparison, 88% of Republican teens say gender is determined by sex at birth. There are also wide partisan gaps on this question among adults.

Teens in rural areas (75%) are more likely than those in urban (66%) and suburban areas (67%) to say a person’s gender is determined by their sex at birth. This pattern is similar among adults.

Comfort with gender-neutral pronouns

A diverging bar chart showing that a majority of teens in rural areas are uncomfortable with gender-neutral pronouns.

We also asked teens and adults whether they are comfortable or uncomfortable with someone using the pronouns “they/them” instead of “he” or “she” to describe themselves. Half of teens say they are uncomfortable with this, while 48% say they are comfortable.

Views differ widely by party. Most Republican teens (74%) say they are uncomfortable with the use of gender-neutral pronouns. In contrast, 70% of Democratic teens say they are comfortable with this.

There are also differences by community type. Six-in-ten teens who live in rural areas say they are uncomfortable with gender-neutral pronouns, compared with 49% of those in the suburbs and 43% in urban areas.

Among older teen girls, 58% say they are comfortable with people using gender-neutral pronouns. Smaller shares of younger teen girls (47%), younger teen boys (38%) and older teen boys (45%) say the same.

Adults give similar opinions as teens, and again their views differ widely by age and partisanship. While 54% of adults say they are uncomfortable with they/them pronouns, 45% say they are comfortable.

Adults younger than 30 are by far the most likely to say they’re comfortable with gender-neutral pronouns. About six-in-ten (61%) in this age group say this, compared with 49% of those ages 30 to 49, 39% of those 50 to 64, and 31% of those 65 and older.  

Two-thirds of Democratic adults say they’re comfortable with these pronouns, while 77% of Republican adults express discomfort.

Note: Here are the questions we asked teens, along with responses, and the survey methodology­­­. Here are the questions we asked adults in September, the topline and the survey methodology.