Legal gender transitions hit record high in the UK
Almost 10,000 gender recognition certificates have been granted in the UK, analysis shows.
The 1,169 certificates (GRCs) issued in the year to March 2025, which allow a person's acquired gender to be recognised legally in the country, is the highest since the scheme began in 2005.
The figure is more than three times the number in 2019-20, when it stood at just 364.
It is thought that the surge is down to the changes in the certification process, including a cut in fees, combined with more applications from young people.
Nearly a quarter of certificates granted in the latest year were for people born since 2000, and 68 per cent were for those born since 1990, up from 4 per cent and 41 per cent respectively in 2019-20.
The data from the Ministry of Justice shows a total of 9,633 GRCs had been granted in the UK up to March 2025.
The findings follow the Supreme Court ruling that the terms 'woman' and 'sex' in the 2010 Equality Act referred to biological sex, not acquired gender.
Under the ruling, a transgender women with a GRC can be excluded from single-sex spaces if 'proportionate'.
The ruling led the boss of Britain's equalities regulator to suggest that while it does not mean GRCs are 'worthless', their efficacy could be re-examined.
Baroness Falkner of Margravine, the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) told BBC Radio 4's Today programme in the days after the ruling: 'I think the next stage of litigation may well be tests as to the efficacy of the GRC, and or other areas.'
Asked about whether she thought GRCs were worthless, she replied: 'We don't believe they are. We think they're quite important.'
Government advice on how to apply for a GRC states that the Supreme Court ruling does not affect the application process, but advises people to contact the EHRC if they have questions.
The Gender Recognition Act came into effect on April 4 2005, giving adults the right legally to change the gender that was recorded on their birth certificate. Applications are made to the Gender Recognition Panel, a body of legal and medical experts, who issue a certificate only if the application meets the necessary criteria.
GRC applications hit a record 1,517 in 2024-25, up from 1,397 the previous year and 443 in 2019-20.
The application fee for a certificate was cut in May 2021 from £140 to £5, while there was a switch to online applications in July 2022.
A GRC is granted if the applicant has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria; has lived in the acquired gender for at least two years and intends to live in that gender for the rest of their life.
PA analysis showed the age of those receiving GRCs had changed considerably over the past decade.
Some 63 per cent of certificates issued in 2014-15 went to people born before 1980 – but by 2024-25 this had dropped sharply to just 17 per cent.
By contrast, people born from 1980 onwards accounted for 83 per cent of certificates in the most recent year, up from 37 per cent a decade earlier.
More recently, there has been a steady increase in the proportion of certificates going to people born since 2000, up from 4 per cent in 2019-20 to 24 per cent in 2024-25.
The age group currently responsible for the biggest proportion is people born in the 1990s, who accounted for 45 per cent of the total in the year to March 2025.
The balance in applications between males and females has also changed over time.
In 2005-06, the first full year that certificates were available, more than three-quarters (77 per cent) were granted to people whose sex at birth was male, with just under a quarter (23 per cent) going to those who were female.
By 2015-16, the gap between these percentages had narrowed at 67 per cent and 33 per cent, and in 2023-24 the figures were almost equal, at 52 per cent for males and 48 per cent for females.
In the most recent year of 2024/25, the gap widened slightly with 55 per cent of certificates granted to people whose sex at birth was male and 45 per cent for those who were female.
Nearly one in 10 people receiving certificates in the year to March 2025 were part of a married couple – a proportion that has been relatively stable since the law was changed in 2014 to allow some applicants to remain married while obtaining gender recognition.
Of the 1,169 certificates granted in 2024/25, 109 (9 per cent) were for married applicants with the vast majority – 1,033 (88 per cent) – for people who were single, while 27 were recorded as 'other/unknown'.
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