Statistics

[Jordan-NH]

So the GF asked me a question last night that I had no answer for. So I went on a mad Google hunt, which means I looked at the first two pages of search results, and quickly gave up. Yeah, I have no attention span.

Anyways, what percentage of men (in the US and/or world) are cross dressers? Figure this has to be a very difficult number to get since so many keep it hidden.

[Beverley Sims]

In my own humble opinion approximately 1.7 percent of the population engages in X gender dressing full time and 2.36 percent approximately do it on a casual basis.

GEEEZ! If don't know how do you expect Google to know.
I know a better source..... Yahoo!
To you too.

P.S. I mean no disrespect.

[Rachael Jones]

This may be useful - not current data, but interesting read nonetheless:

http://www.crossdreamers.com/2010/02/survey-of-crossdressers.html?m=1

Couldn't create a proper link, sorry. On my mobile :(

[deebra]

I agree with the percentage Beverly gave, just wish it was higher. What effect do you think it would have on society and CD's if 30 or 40% of men saw the benefits of wearing female clothing and did so. These benefits would be soft sexy clothing with a multitude of colors, makeup that would cover the flaws in your face and make it look better, relating to women in something we both enjoy picking out and wearing. Would both the men and women in our society get use to seeing men crossdress and accept this as their own personal choice in the clothing they choose to wear and it's their choice, it's not hurting me so it's no big deal. Those beautiful curvy female bodies that men and CD's love could be emulated by those that chose to dress, with this much acceptance this group could openly dress with less or little stress an ridicule. After all there are some CD's that really look good, very feminine and desirable to the point where a lot of GG's would trade with them. Do you think the men that tried the soft sexy female clothing would love it and given the choice never want to go back to tighty whities or boxers. It'll never happen but what do you think?

[insearchofme]

I used to teach a Human Sexuality class on the college level. The stats I saw back then (late 90's) was 1% to 3%. The percentage was high for those who tried on female clothing at lest one time, don't remember what it was exactly but it was in the 20% range.

[Ceri Anne]

I found the link from Alt to be very interesting, but it only addressed those who already identify as cross dressers, so it doesn't give an overall picture of what percentage identify as such. I have seen stats on that before and think it may be slightly higher than what Beverly posted, will have to look deeper.

[Wildaboutheels]

Easy Q. The same percentage as there are Gay people. The same percentage as women who have been raped.

Translated, no RELAIBLE way to tell, since all three groups ALL share the shame/guilt thing, although slowly but surely more gays are coming out [as laws are enacted to protect them] and public opinion is slowly changing as most all, except the densest of people have come to realize that Gays are no threat to them. Many reports say that most rapes are from/by men the women knew and that less than 10% are reported. Little wonder the women won't report them. Here, at THIS Forum, few will claim they have never felt shame or guilt.

Some educated guesses CAN be made though. Look how many members this site has and look at how many participate by TYPING in these Forums. So most are either just curious, or are simply here to look at pics. Look at how popular the pic threads are and look at how many other CD sites there are. Do the math.

Throw in the FACT that ten if not 15 years ago, maybe longer, I saved a clipping from the newspaper... Can't remember if it was Ann Landers or Dear Abby... A woman asked about her husbands "liking" for X dressing and was told in a nutshell that many men like women's underwear, pantyhose etc., and that no conclusion can or should be made or jumped to.. This was long before all the shrinks we have running about today. Today, with all the online shopping available as well as plenty of sources for larger clothing and shoes, the percentage is probably far larger?

Today, mostly because more and more women don't "need" men at least here in the US [MAINLY because of women's ever rising education levels {and the income that comes with it}] there are fewer and fewer men and women living together. And then there is the Intenet. The Internet lulls most people into believing that finding a partner is as simple as a few mouseclicks. I believe this economic crisis is temporary and in the future there will be even fewer and fewer people living together. To me that easily translates into ever more men CDing...

My "guess" would be at least 20% if not 30% who do "it" regularly and I'd bet a years pay, that 50% of all men have at least tried on women's underwear or pantyhose at least once.

Sad thing to me is there COULD be poll Qs at this Forum [by CHOICE of course] where people could be "forced" to tell the truth with ZERO "danger" to themselves but few members desire it. These Polls would be of the greatest benefit to GGs ... for better or for worse. Knowing nothing about programming I haven't a clue about time, effort or money involved by Admin. There would be no need for Mods at all.

[Foxglove]

I'm the sort of person who regards "guesses" as meaningless. A guess is just pulling a number out of a hat. I note also that we transpeople have a vested interest in inflating the numbers as much as possible.

Why say, "It's estimated that 5% of men enjoy CDing," when you can just as easily say, "It's estimated that 10/20/30/50% (choose your number) of men enjoy CDing"? Nobody can prove one figure any more than the other, so take the one that suits you.

Until we get more or less reliable numbers, I myself will say nothing on the question. And if it could be more or less reliably established that only 1 out of every 10,000 or 100,000 people was trans, it wouldn't make me any less trans and it wouldn't particularly upset me. I'm used to being in a very small minority in many ways.

Best wishes, Annabelle

[Kate Simmons]

The "best guess" and $2 will get us a cup of coffee (Maybe!). :battingeyelashes::)

[Jenniferathome]

10% of the general population are gay. Cross dressers HAVE TO BE a smaller percentage than this or there would be more info.

[SandraInHose]

One always wonders how truthful people are when answering polls or surveys such as these. Even in an anonymous survey, many people are still paranoid they will be found out. I grew up in the 60's & 70's, and back then no one admitted to masturbating. Today, it's almost as nonchalant as admitting you're a smoker or drinker. I predict that eventually there will be a more accurate answer, and actual percentage of crossdressers will be higher than is currently stated.

[DeeArel]

Back in the 70's, I used to read all I could find on the CD subject. Estimates back then had it at 10% and probably higher due to respondents being reluctant to answer truthfully.

[Being Paige]

I had always heard that 1 out of 5 or 8 men were crossdresser's. Don't know how true that is.

[BLUE ORCHID]

Hi Brittany, Only when the Government makes us all register and taxes us
only will we really know the true percentage of males that Crossdress.

[Miranda09]

My own personal study suggests around 100%...but that's based only on 1 data point!!!!! :D

[RADER]

Just look at this forum, with over 27,000 signed up and 6,800 active members.
Now those are the ones that found us; I wonder how many have not looked,
or looked but did not sign up.
I would like to think there are plenty More of us out there; Are only hope is that
Society will accept us soon. Like the gays, at least they are accepted, I wish the
time will come for us to be accepted.
Rader

[ReineD]

The trouble is, no one knows because so many crossdressers are closeted. The only people who count in the studies are the transsexuals because they seek medical help to transition.

Studies show that gay and lesbian count for about 3% of the population. This is an average of studies done world wide. It makes sense to me there would me no more crossdressers than this, in fact, possibly less.

Any transgender, transsexual, crossgender, or crossdreamer site you go to will tend to overestimate the numbers because everyone loves a party. :p

[Tamara Croft]

Just look at this forum, with over 27,000 signed up and 6,800 active members.And that's not an accurate number because of the amount of accounts deleted through members registering and never using their accounts, after a year or so they get removed. The latest member who's registered is 104,090, that's the true registration number since 2004 :)

[docrobbysherry]

I agree with the percentage Beverly gave, just wish it was higher. What effect do you think it would have on society and CD's if 30 or 40% of men saw the benefits of wearing female clothing and did so. These benefits would be soft sexy clothing with a multitude of colors, makeup that would cover the flaws in your face and make it look better, relating to women in something we both enjoy picking out and wearing. -------------------------------- Do you think the men that tried the soft sexy female clothing would love it and given the choice never want to go back to tighty whities or boxers. It'll never happen but what do you think?
The "benefits" of wearing women's clothes? And, makeup, "covering the flaws in their faces"? No offense, Deebra, but r u kidding? Either that or u have no clue about what motivates men!

I began dressing at 50. No idea why I tried those ladies jeans on. But, I can tell u this for sure. It had NOTHING to do with thots of any benefits. Or, that I thot they mite feel, "soft and sexy". At the time, I thot it was goofy, but it DID turn me on. That's the kind of benefit men think about.

For 50 years, I grabbed the nearest clean shirt and pants, threw them on and headed out the door. And, altho I spend hours prepping Sherry's outfits, when I dress in drab, I do exactly the same thing as I did the first 50 years.

Why did I wait 50 years to try something fem on? Because it simply NEVER OCCURRED TO ME before then! When men think of women's clothing, they think of the woman wearing them. And, they want to get rid of those clothes ASAP!

[Brittany CD]

Unknown, but consider this; many who would be surveyed would probably say they weren't crossdressers.

[DianeDeBris]

Studies show that gay and lesbian count for about 3% of the population. This is an average of studies done world wide. It makes sense to me there would me no more crossdressers than this, in fact, possibly less.
I agree with at least 99% of what Reine says, day in and day out. Still, I have two questions here: I've understood ("heard") for years that about 10-11% of the male population is gay (I am unfamiliar with the lesbian comparable). Is the 3% estimate generally considered sound? Second, I'm interested to hear the foundation for the latter assumption (ie, that the number of cross dressers plainly should be less than the proportion of gay persons). This may be entirely correct, I simply don't know; but it's not self-evident to me that wearing extraordinary clothes is significantly more out of the ordinary than
engaging in (or preferring) sex with "non-routine" partners. Please, please accept that I mean this *entirely* as a request for clarification!!! Thanks and hugs - Diane

[nvlady]

I'm in my late sixties and I still have my high school yearbook. What fun to look through the book with the knowlege that five to ten percent of my classmates are gay, and about five percent are crossdressers. Fun also to think that a few of them are millionaires, not so much fun to think that after fifty years at least twenty five percent of them are no longer with us, and a few are alcoholics or addicted to drugs.

[sometimes_miss]

Times may have changed, but in order to figure myself out, I read everything I could find regarding not only crossdressing, but homosexuality and transsexualism as well from age 13 to the year about 2000. In that time, what studies I could find told me this: About 2.5% of all men crossdress, either regularly at some point in their lives or currently. 80% of them claim to be completely heterosexual, but as you see here on these forums, there are a lot of men who say that initially, but as time goes on want to go out dressed as women and date men. Now, I ignored studies done by anyone who had an apparent agenda (such as someone who gets their data by only interviewing the activity group itself).

I'm sorry, but I never wrote down all the sources; I wasn't on a search to create a document of any sort, I was just trying to figure out where I stood in the world, why, and what ramifications it was going to have on my life. All I did was go to book stores and libraries and read. When the internet became available, I started with the usenet, discussing the subject with other guys who were going through the same thing, and found that they had discovered the same figures, I'm also guessing that it was probably from the same sources, as there simply weren't that many studies done about us back then. The one that was most interesting, was this: I found it in a Barnes and Noble bookstore discount bin, it was I think a blue hardback book which cited other people's research into sexual deviancy in the general population as well as the social issues involved. Only about 5% of women considered crossdressing men to be appropriate to live near, or work with. Half that would befriend us and include us in their lives. Half again would even consider dating us. And that is a study of not what women had done, but what they thought should be done. In discussions with the therapists that I have spoken to who have treated crossdressers and their girlfriends/wives, what happens when confronted with the reality of finding out your boyfriend/husband is a crossdresser is very often the liberal minded woman who initially thought that she could accept/deal with the situation, realized that she could not, and broke off the relationship, again halving the numbers.

Sure, there are women out there that support their male partner once they find out he likes to dress/behave as a girl. But the numbers are not encouraging, and there is no way to find those women, as there is a stigma attached to women who date/marry less than the stereotypical masculine male; any male seen as weak or not ambitious is automatically seen as a poor choice; one who embraces femininity to our degree is seen as even worse in the eyes of other women.

Basically, there are no absolute correct numbers available, because there are a whole lot of crossdressers who are not out, nor would tell anyone about their activities. Add in those who are still in the confused state, and you have more. What is known, is that there are a significant number of us, and not a whole lot of women who would even touch us with the proverbial ten foot pole.

Brittany, if you're girlfriend is still with you, consider yourself one lucky crossdresser indeed.

Now to address the previously mentioned stats.


In my own humble opinion approximately 1.7 percent of the population engages in X gender dressing full time and 2.36 percent approximately do it on a casual basis.
A guess, based on what? Crossdressers intuition?


I used to teach a Human Sexuality class on the college level. The stats I saw back then (late 90's) was 1% to 3%. The percentage was high for those who tried on female clothing at lest one time, don't remember what it was exactly but it was in the 20% range.
Somewhere in the line of what I was reading, at about the last years when I was actively researching crossdressing. Lots of men have tried on a piece of woman's clothes. How many go further and continue to wear the rest is much, much less. Then, I simply have to address this:

Easy Q. The same percentage as there are Gay people. The same percentage as women who have been raped.
You base all this on the likelyhood that someone will outwardly tell you about something they don't feel good revealing?

Then,

Translated, no RELIABLE way to tell, since all three groups ALL share the shame/guilt thing, although slowly but surely more gays are coming out [as laws are enacted to protect them] and public opinion is slowly changing as most all, except the densest of people have come to realize that Gays are no threat to them.
That has no bearing on how many men crossdress. I can understand why you came up with that, but how you can believe the correlation is accurate, I have no idea.


Some educated guesses CAN be made though.
A guess based on looking solely at a sample of crossdressers.


Look how many members this site has and look at how many participate by TYPING in these Forums. So most are either just curious, or are simply here to look at pics. Look at how popular the pic threads are and look at how many other CD sites there are. Do the math.
O.K., there are what, six billion people on earth, maybe half that have access to the net and can use it. If you figure even one tenth of the crossdressers out there have the knowledge to search for this forum, and one tenth EVER join, then based on Tamara's figure, that's what, about 0.3%?


Throw in the FACT that ten if not 15 years ago, maybe longer, I saved a clipping from the newspaper... Can't remember if it was Ann Landers or Dear Abby... A woman asked about her husbands "liking" for X dressing and was told in a nutshell that many men like women's underwear, pantyhose etc., and that no conclusion can or should be made or jumped to.
Very feminine to use a source like Dear Abby and/or Anne Landers as a reliable source for any kind of information. We may as well use the horoscope. BTW, my last therapist had saved that same column. Interesting that either of you would do so.......


I believe this economic crisis is temporary and in the future there will be even fewer and fewer people living together. To me that easily translates into ever more men CDing...[quote]
I'm not sure how an economic crisis causes the desire for crossdressing among males who never would have considered it otherwise; maybe they think dressing like women is cheaper???

[quote] Sad thing to me is there COULD be poll Qs at this Forum [by CHOICE of course]
Again, an optional pole by crossdressers for crossdressers, I don't think you're going to get unbiased answers, but unfortunately most crossdressers seem to believe that this kind of thing would be accurate, just like the COGIATI nonsense.

[ReineD]

Still, I have two questions here: I've understood ("heard") for years that about 10-11% of the male population is gay (I am unfamiliar with the lesbian comparable). Is the 3% estimate generally considered sound?

I'm guessing the higher numbers (10%) reflect individuals who have had some homosexual experiences, but who do not habitually engage in same-sex sex. I personally do not consider someone homosexual, who has only experimented ... otherwise I'd be counted as homosexual too, even though I am not attracted to women. :p

Here is a year 2000 combined survey of the US homosexual population. It draws from three data sets: the General social Survey (GSS), the National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS), and the US census. You can read the report for additional information:
http://www.uwlax.edu/faculty/giddings/ECO108/Week%206/Black_demography_2000.pdf

Results of the combined samples, over 7 years of data (p.141):

4.7% of men in the combined samples had at least one same-sex experience since age 18, but only 2.5% of men have engaged in exclusively same-sex over the year preceding the survey.

3.5% of women had at least one same-sex experience, but only 1.4% of women have had exclusively same-sex sex over the year preceding the survey.


I had found a world-wide survey at one point that placed the average among a dozen or so countries also at about 3% or less. I cannot find it right now, but if you go to the Wikipedia Homosexual Demographic page, you will see some figures for other countries than the US. Keep in mind, the higher numbers than about 3% would include people who are not homosexual, but who have experimented.

------------------------------------

A Gallup Special Report: The U.S. Adult LGBT Population, October 2012
http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/research/census-lgbt-demographics-studies/gallup-special-report-18oct-2012/


3.4% of U.S. adults identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.

[Foxglove]

Just look at this forum, with over 27,000 signed up and 6,800 active members.
Now those are the ones that found us; I wonder how many have not looked,
or looked but did not sign up.
I would like to think there are plenty More of us out there; Are only hope is that
Society will accept us soon. Like the gays, at least they are accepted, I wish the
time will come for us to be accepted.
Rader

Rader, I don't mean to sound mean here, but I think it's a fallacy to assume information on the basis of a lack of information. We have (1) active members, (2) non-active members, (3) people who've found this forum but didn't sign up and (4) people who never looked for this forum.

To assume that (2), (3) and (4) must be similar to (1) would be extremely fallacious. Why aren't (2) active? Maybe because having signed up, they realized they're not like the rest of us. Why didn't (3) sign up? Maybe because having viewed the forum a bit, they realized they're not like us. Why didn't (4) look for this forum? Maybe because they have no trans inclinations whatsoever and therefore never had any reason to look for this forum.

That there are people out there who are trans to one extent or another but never acknowledge or explore their trans nature is a dead certainty. I was one of them myself for many years. But we have no way of knowing how many such people there are, and therefore in my view we shouldn't hazard a guess as to their numbers.

But the assumption that (2), (3) and (4) must be similar to us, despite the fact that their behavior has proven to be the opposite of ours, I find rather curious. I'd be inclined to make the opposite assumption myself: if they don't do as we do, they ain't what we are.





Any transgender, transsexual, crossgender, or crossdreamer site you go to will tend to overestimate the numbers because everyone loves a party. :p

I think it's partly this, Reine: you find comfort when you've got plenty of company.

But I think there's another aspect of it, and here I think transpeople are making a mistake. We're trying to assert that "there's lots more of us out there than you think you are" as if that will somehow validate us in the eyes of the cis majority, as if that will persuade them to give us respect along with equal civil and human rights. I think this is bad strategy.

If you're part of a minority, the majority generally cares little about how large that minority is. Here in Ireland these days, there is a minority who at last count measured 29% of the population. I'm not going to say what this minority is. I don't want to open up that can of worms. But this minority has become the target of steadily increasingly repressive and insulting legislation with the full approval of the majority. You may guess that I happen to be a member of this minority, so when I say that the majority are being perfectly hypocritical in what they're doing, you can factor that in. All I want to point out here is that even a significant minority can find themselves the target of majority repression.

Is anyone truly going to pretend that transpeople might be 29% of the population? And even if we were, it would give us no guarantee that the 71% would treat us any better than they do now.

No, for me the right way of going about things is to look at the thing in itself, look at TGism in itself. What exactly is it? If everybody in the world were trans, would that make me a better person? If I were the only one in the world who was trans, would that make me a bad person? A bad thing doesn't become good just because lots of people are doing it, and a good thing doesn't become bad just because hardly anybody is doing it.

I'd say this: assume that we transpeople are a very tiny minority indeed. Does that fact alone justify people in denying us equal civil and human rights? Is TGism bad or harmful in itself? If not, you aren't justified in denying us our rights, regardless of how many of us there actually are.

The question of our numbers isn't a burning question for me because at the end of the day I don't think it's going to mean anything--unless our numbers do prove to be fairly large, and it scares and repulses the majority so much that they decide to become seriously repressive.

Best wishes, Annabelle

[pink.switch.love]

"100% of me." That would be my answer to her... ;-)

Why does she want to know anyway?

[NicoleScott]

I conducted a poll to find out how many people never answer poll questions.
The result? there are no such people, and my poll proves it

The number or percentage of crossdressers is impossible to determine. Some deeply closeted CDers (or people with strong CD desires who never acted on those desires, for various reasons) will never believe that a poll is blind, and won't answer or answer honestly.

So it's just a guess. My guess is 5%, no higher than 10%.