The 2021 Census of England and Wales was the first to count the transgender population. When the results were released, I immediately realised that they were not plausible. My statistical analysis demonstrated that the numbers were inflated by people with poor English who misunderstood the question, ‘Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?’.

I eventually persuaded the Office for Statistics Regulation to downgrade the Census results—they no longer count as ‘official national statistics’—and to replace the flawed question with a clear one, such as ‘Do you identify as transgender?’. This talk will summarise my statistical analysis which demonstrated the errors and my explanation for why the Office for National Statistics adopted such a confusing question. The broader lesson is that statistical data always deserve critical scrutiny.

Please join either in person or online. For in-person attendees, the talk will be preceded by a light lunch at 12.15pm.

Please email comms@sociology.ox.ac.uk with any questions or to receive the Microsoft Teams link.