Life situation of transgender people in Sweden mapped

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 health care 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.