Decline in nonbinary identity among U.S. students after 2023

A new analysis of recent student surveys finds a marked decline in the share of young Americans identifying as nonbinary or otherwise not male or female, with the steepest falls occurring after 2023, according to a report by Eric Kaufmann, a politics professor at the University of Buckingham and director of the Centre for Heterodox Social Science. Kaufmann compiled and analyzed data from multiple surveys of high school and college students in the United States, including large annual campus surveys and institution-specific questionnaires, and released his findings this month.

Kaufmann’s report highlights several consistent drops across datasets. An annual survey of undergraduates that sampled tens of thousands of students found 6.8 percent identifying as a gender other than male or female in 2023, falling to 3.6 percent in the most recent round. At the preparatory Andover Phillips Academy, the share reported at 9.2 percent in 2023 fell to about 3 percent in 2025. At Brown University, the proportion declined from roughly 5 percent in 2022 and 2023 to 2.6 percent in 2025. Kaufmann and the surveys he cites generally count students who select a nonbinary or "other" option on gender...