New study maps the life situation of transgender people in Sweden

A new study provides a unique insight into the group seeking gender-affirming care in Sweden. It shows that transgender people are a socioeconomically vulnerable group and that in 2020, 0.07% of Sweden's population had received a gender incongruence diagnosis, while 0.03% had undergone a legal gender change.

The study reveals that transgender people are socioeconomically disadvantaged — a vulnerability that spans across different generations.

“People seeking trans healthcare have significantly lower incomes on average compared to others, regardless of the time period or age group we compare. It’s a very small and economically vulnerable group,” says Emma von Essen, a researcher at the Institute for Social Research (SOFI) at Stockholm University, who leads the research team.

In the study, published in the journal Demography, researchers analyzed how gender incongruence diagnoses  and legal gender changes relate to education, geography, marital status, and income, as well as compared different ages and birth cohorts.

“This is the first comprehensive study on the socioeconomic conditions of those who have received gender-affirming care in Sweden,” says Martin Kolk, one of the authors and a lecturer at the demography unit (SUDA) at Stockholm University.

“The number of people receiving a gender incongruence diagnosis has increased, but from a very low level. In recent years, we’ve seen an increase in the number of trans men, while in the past, a majority were trans women,” Kolk continues.

The study is a collaboration between SOFI, SUDA, Uppsala University, and the University of Liverpool.

Read the full study here: Kolk, Martin, Lucas Tilley, Emma von Essen, Ylva Moberg, Ian Burn (2025) “The Demography of Sweden’s Transgender Population – A Research Note on Patterns, Changes, and Sociodemographics,” Demography.

How the Study Was Conducted
The study is based on Swedish administrative data and covers the entire population from 1973 to 2020. The researchers analyzed gender incongruence diagnoses in healthcare records and legal gender changes. The data comes from the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket), and Statistics Sweden (SCB). Since the study is based on administrative data, it only includes those who have sought care or undergone a legal gender change, thus not covering all transgender people in Sweden.