Economic Outcomes for Transgender People and Other Gender Minorities in the United States: First Estimates from a Nationally Representative Sample

Abstract

We provide the literature’s first estimates of economic outcomes for transgender people and other gender minorities in the United States using nationally representative data from the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey which identifies over 9,400 individuals from 2021-22 who are non-cisgender (i.e., whose current gender does not align with their sex assigned at birth). We find that non-cisgender individuals are significantly less likely to be employed, have higher poverty rates, are more likely to have public health insurance, and report greater food insecurity compared to otherwise similar cisgender individuals. We also find that non-cisgender Black individuals fare significantly worse than non-cisgender white individuals. Our results demonstrate the precarious economic position of gender minority populations in America.

Keywords: transgender, gender minority, LGBT, economic outcomes, Household Pulse Survey

JEL Classification: J1