Transgender ‘trend’ sharply declining on American college campuses, new analysis finds

Fox News | October 15, 2025
Original article can be viewed HERE

The trans-identification trend among young people appears to be losing momentum.

Recent data taken from college campuses shows a sharp decline in the number of Gen Zers identifying as transgender over the past three years.

Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at the University of Buckingham, conducted his own analysis of a large nonprobability-based survey of U.S. undergraduates — which included a question asking them to identify their gender.

Anything that isn’t a man or woman is considered “gender non-conforming,” the surveying organization shared with Fox News Digital.The possible answers are listed below.

Man
Woman
Nonbinary
Agender
Genderqueer or genderfluid
Unsure
Prefer not to say
In the 2025 survey of 68,000 students, only 3.6% of respondents identified as a gender other than male or female.

The report also found that “non-conforming sexual identity” has sharply declined, according to Kaufmann. Those identifying as gay or lesbian remained “stable,” although heterosexuality has risen 10 points since 2023.

Additionally, in 2024-2025, fewer college first-year students identified as “trans or queer” compared to seniors — which is the opposite of what occurred in the 2022-2023 year.

“This suggests that gender/sexual non-conformity will continue to fall,” Kaufmann wrote in an X post sharing the data.

The annual survey — College Free Speech Rankings — is conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The aim is to gather students’ opinions on freedom of speech, along with demographic information like gender.

Kaufmann conducted his analyses using six years of demographic data from the survey, FIRE confirmed to Fox News Digital.

His independent report, “The Decline of Trans and Queer Identity among Young Americans,” was published by the Centre of Heterodox Social Science and has not been peer-reviewed.

“Our survey looks at student attitudes for free expression and is conducted for that purpose,” FIRE told Fox News Digital. “As a side effect of asking demographic questions of so many respondents, one can glean trends in demographics, as Professor Kaufmann has done here.”

Reasons for the decline

Kaufmann said he believes that improved mental health likely played a part in the shift.

“Less anxious and, especially, depressed students are linked with a smaller share identifying as trans, queer or bisexual,” he wrote.

The decline could also signal the fizzling out of a trend, Kaufmann added.

“The fall of trans and queer seems most similar to the fading of a fashion or trend,” he wrote. “It happened largely independently of shifts in political beliefs and social media use, though improved mental health played a role.”

“Perhaps young people are realizing they don’t have to announce or label everything about themselves to be valid.”

Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, noted that the study is “very interesting,” but doesn’t pinpoint the cause of the decline.

Transgender ‘trend’ sharply declining on American college campuses, new analysis finds

Transgender ‘trend’ sharply declining on American college campuses, new analysis finds

Reasons for the decline

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