The trans trend is on the decline amongst US undergraduates and Gen Z. A study out of the University of Buckingham by Professor Eric Kaufmann has found that trans and queer identities are in decline among young Americans. In his data analysis, one survey conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) showed a sharp drop in U.S. college students identifying as transgender or non-binary—from 6.8% in 2022–2023 to 3.2% in 2025. By comparison, the figure was 5.2% in 2024 and 6.8% in both 2022 and 2023. Simply put, the portion of trans-identified students has effectively halved in just two years.
Similar trends are seen at Ivy League colleges, including Phillips Academy Andover near Boston, where over 75% of students are surveyed each year. In 2023, 9.2% identified as neither male nor female. By this year, that figure had dropped sharply to just 3%. A similar pattern occurs at Brown University, where 5% of students identified as non-binary in both 2022 and 2023, but that number decreased to 2.6% in 2025.
The study highlighted notable changes in how young Americans identified their gender and sexual identities, with drastic declines in categories such as “bisexual”, “queer,” as well as “questioning” and “pansexual”, whilst other categories like gay or lesbian remained stable. The study’s author notes that “It appears that trans and queer are going out of fashion among young people, especially in elite settings” where trans or queer identities are less prevalent in incoming cohorts of college students in comparison to their peers in 2022 and 2023.
In a publication for UnHerd, Professor Kaufmann notes that shifts in mental health—particularly levels of depression—played a significant role in the changing patterns of trans and queer identity among young people during the study period. The overall decline in trans identification across all students was 3.6 points (from 6.8% to 3.2%)—a larger drop than within any individual mental health category. Part of the overall drop is compositional— that is, fewer students with anxiety and depression in 2025 compared to 2023, who were previously more likely to identify as trans/non-binary.
The Daily Citizen notes that other contributing factors to this dramatic decline include the cultural pushback against gender ideology, like President Trump’s executive actions banning gender surgeries for minors and unapologetically affirming the biological reality of just two sexes – male and female. Voices like de-transitioners Chloe Cole and New Zealanders Issy and Zara have added personal weight to the growing pushback and the need for legal action against doctors involved in gender transitions.
Studies like Professor Kaufmann’s have not just confirmed long-standing suspicions of the trans movement as a social contagion but have reaffirmed the concerns many have long held about the social, physical and psychological impacts of gender ideology.
While it’s difficult to say whether similar trends are emerging in New Zealand, international studies like Professor Kaufmann’s offers hope. It indicates that pushing back against radical gender ideology and advocating for balanced, evidence-based approaches to issues such as gender distress is not only necessary but increasingly effective.
*Written by Family First staff writers*
