How many of us are there?

[SiobhanW]

Does anyone know if there are any figures (or even if you just want to take a guess) to say just how many men out there crossdress? Is it just me, you guys, and J. Edgar Hoover when he was alive? :heehee:

Would be nice to know, statistically speaking, if there was likely to be someone else in my circle of acquaintances who does this.

[Bethany_Anne_Fae]

Does anyone know if there are any figures (or even if you just want to take a guess) to say just how many men out there crossdress? Is it just me, you guys, and J. Edgar Hoover when he was alive? :heehee:

Would be nice to know, statistically speaking, if there was likely to be someone else in my circle of acquaintances who does this.

I'd have to dig it up again, but I had a survey somewhere that said one in seven males cross dress in some form or another.

In my personal experience, a group of people I'm involved with numbering somewhere near 60 males...
...once it became common knowledge that I CD, about 12 of them came out of the woodwork privately so say hello.

So, based on that maybe 15%
rough guess

[charlie]

J. Edgasr Hoover was a crossdresser? See, you learn something everyday! I read somewhere that 2% of the male population were crossdressers.

[SiobhanW]

I would think it would be hard to get actuals. I mean, it's not like some of us exactly broadcast it. But if you do come up with proper survey results, I'd love to see them.

Lady Z, the guys who came to say hello...were they curious, admitting to their own crossdressing, or hitting on you? Or perhaps some combination of the three?

[Amanda Shaft]

My theory is that every male really wants to dress in female clothes, they just wont admit it to themselves. As yet!
Amanda x

[sissystephanie]

I believe between 10 and 15% percent of the male population are
Crossdressers. Maybe not to the extent that most of us here are, but to some degree.

Now what would you guess the number of Crossdressing females to be? If you look at how they are dressed in the malls, and everywhere else, you would have to say about 90% are crossdressers. The clothing may be made for women, but it sure looks a like men's clothing!:heehee: Pants, shirts, even their shoes look maculine. And nobody cares, but when we wear a skirt, woweee!!!

Sissy/Stephanie

Girl on the outside, Man on the inside

[Marla S]

This question is brought up frequently here.
There seems to be no reliable educated guess.

The problem starts with the definition of crossdressing.

In the surveys I read about it often included "one time in your life" or "fantasizing about it" ... well :rolleyes:.

My guess: CDs like here in the forum, less than 1 %

EDIT: Here (http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/TSprevalence.html) it is assumed 2-5 %

[charllote34]

another good question and because of the nature of people , you will never get a accurate answer , ie does every cross dresser want to tell??

[Marla S]

Here is a recent study. Abstract only, without numbers.
http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/srsp.2007.4.2.50
Maybe someone at university having access to this journal can look up what they say.


My theory is that every male really wants to dress in female clothes, they just wont admit it to themselves. As yet!
Well something interesting I had to learn on a German forum is that even a lot of TGs don't answer surveys, because the don't agree with the definition of the "labels" and feel hurt in their self-identification. That is the result of the usual confusion of scientific definitions of labels, which require criteria, and labels for self-identification which only require that you believe in them.

[Ruth]

That survey referenced by Marla in her first post is interesting. It's kind of clinical and makes the various TG practices sound like a disease, so I'm not totally sympathetic to the findings or the thinking behind them.
However, the suggestion is made that of the 2 to 5 per cent of the male population who CD, two-thirds do it for "male fetishistic reasons" and the remaining one-third to express transgender feelings. This is important stuff because it claims to identify two different routes to CDing for men, and also puts rough proportions on the two populations. Personally I doubt that we divide cleanly into two groups like that, and I've no idea how good the numbers are.
But at least somebody's thinking about it. We can hope for better studies in the future.

[Deanna2]

This topic has been done over so often and the figures always vary. I've seen a figure of 5 percent, but the problem is that no one has ever defined 'crossdressing'. Is it just wearing panties or is it full on presenting in public as a woman? Here the figures must surely be quite different. Let's say 25 percent for the former and .1 percent for the latter.

The thing that makes me so cross though is all this so-called research comes with sexual conotations and usually with some deviance in the background. Not everyone suffers from gender distrophy. OK some guys may get an erotic thrill from wearing a bra and panties (and I won't deny it) but just as many guys wear femme gear for other reasons. Personally I wear femme gear (like a cami and skirt) because it is pretty and comfortable.

[Jazzmine]

All stats are confusing on actual numbers of CDs.

Almost every male on earth has been to at least one party/gala/promo crossdressed so if the question is how many have crossdressed the answer has to be "most" men. How many secretly enjoyed it? All of them! Probably they enjoyed it so much it scared them enough to shut up about it!!!

If the question is how many are committed CDs as a lifestyle (including hobbyists who won't give it up! LOL) then I agree the answer is likely to be 1% or less.

Remember though that 1% is still a high figure - your talking 1,000 per 100,000 people. That's way more than the numbers who belong to, say, photography clubs for the same per capita. Nearly everyone has a camera but don't call themselves a "photographer". So statistics are very loose by nature and should never be relied upon unless you accept the inherent bias of the leading question(s).

:hugs: Jazzmine

[Kate Simmons]

Well, I do it but I can't be sure about Joe across the street. Of course I did see him bring home a lot of Macy's bags one time by himself. Hmm--maybe that's why he's never mentioned seeing me leave en femme.:thinking:

[Ðarissa]

Ok that's it. I say we send out the message that all CDers are to walk outside on a specific time and day and wave glowing pink flags and get somebody to hack a satellite to take a scan of the earth. :p

[trannie T]

The answer to the question of how many crossdressers there are is the same as the answer to the question of why we crossdress; ain't nobody knows.

[Jazzmine]

That's OK Darissa, so long as you deduct the people out on the dark side of the earth with their glo stiks at their local Christmas in the Park concert!
Oh and some of them will have one in each hand which is a double count so someone will need to work out this occurrence and adjust accordingly.
Life's never perfect is it .....:sad:

We could maybe make a broad statement that "all men are closet CDrs unless they prove otherwise". How would you prove that you are not? If you've ever been home alone .... you've done it!

Or we could nominate April 1 as "out the CD" day. All neighbours would have to search the house next door looking for clandestine stashes of femme stuff. That would be revealing wouldn't it?:heehee:

:hugs: Jazzmine

[MonikaW]

As everyone said, there really are no reliable statistics. However, I think that there probably men in your circle of friends or co-workers who probably do crossdress to some extent or another. Unless you know very few people, chances are that you know a crossdresser or two.

Though it's been widely reported that J. Edgar Hoover crossdressed the evidence is very thin on that. I happen to believe that it is likely true, but even then we really don't know. There was a single biography that published that fact and since then people did run with it. J. Edgar did have a very close male friend Clyde Tolson. Though they each denied anything other than a friendship, they definitely had the appearance of a being a couple. They never married, always went on vacations together, and were rarely seen in social situations without the other. While they did maintain separate residences, it is known that they often spent the evening with each other. Since being gay does not mean being a crossdresser (and viceversa), I'm not sure if he really was. I think the crossdressing label may have been applied because of what otherwise appears to have been a gay relationship.

[SweetCaroline]

I'm not going to guess figures, but I can honestly and sincerely say, every single person I've met in my entire life has met at least one cross-dresser.




















ME!:heehee:

[docrobbysherry]

Sounds a lot like the questions;

How many Angels can fit on the head of a pin?
Or, how many holes does it take to fill the Albert Hall?
Or, how many stooges does it take to change a lite bulb?
Let's put them all together.

How many CD's, wearing Anaheim Angels pins, does it take to change all the lite bulbs in Albert Hall?

OK, I'm cutting myself off now!
RS

www.myspace.com/robertsherry

[insearchofme]

I used to teach sex ed in a university. The most current research says 3-5 %. Even if it's 1% of the population then there millions of us.

[ChanDelle]

I did some quick numbers based on world wide population of about 3.3 Billion people. If 5% were CD that'd amount to about 166 Million of us running around on this planet, give or take. That's about 1/2 the population of the US. Seems like a lot of folks to me if I'm anywhere near correct.

Now if we just stick to the US, that'd be about 15 Million of us. Not a number to ignore is it?

ChanDelle

[Bethany_Anne_Fae]

I would think it would be hard to get actuals. I mean, it's not like some of us exactly broadcast it. But if you do come up with proper survey results, I'd love to see them.

Lady Z, the guys who came to say hello...were they curious, admitting to their own crossdressing, or hitting on you? Or perhaps some combination of the three?

It was a combination of all of the above. Most were into the sexual end of things. "Would you be interested in coming over and trying on nylons, panties etc together?" sort of thing.
A couple others were the extreme fetishists into hardcore bondage, whipping, while dressed.
Out of the 12, there were no simple CDers.
As soon as I showed non-interest in what they wanted to share... they slipped quietly back into the closet.

[Suzy Harrison]

When I was 12 I used to think there was only one person in the whole world - just me!.. A very scary experience when you're so young. I was very ashamed of myself and also thought I must have been a little abnormal to feel that way.

As I got a little older I'd read bad press in the newspapers about others like me. It made me feel better to think I wasn't the only one, but I didn't draw too much comfort in the way the articles were presented.

Now I'm older (I've been 21 quite a few times now!) - I'm really at peace with myself and I'm happy. I think there are many more like us than you would think. I get e-mails (on other sites) from guys all the time saying they would love to go enfemme, but they never have got the nerve to do it. I think we represent a very large group of people - but we stand out as the small minority who actually did something about their feelings.

:love:

[Laurelanne]

You know i'd like that answer too but I must convey that I personally over these many years have made an assumption that at LEAST 1 in 5 men crossdress to some extent. I was a very travelled person when younger and all the males I met or be friended has some form of it. I even met many many on the road who crossdressed for a pastime AND lifestyle too. Am I right ? LOL >>L:heehee:

[Satrana]

These percentages are somewhat irrelevant because they exist within a climate of fear and ignorance. People do not want to associate themselves with a derogatory behavior, only those who are compelled to crossover taboo lines feel inclined to own up to being a CD.

A more interesting statistic is the number of girls who identify as tomboys and consciously defy standard gender stereotyping but can do so without the stigmatization heaped onto boys. Among schoolgirls today up to 50% identify themselves as tomboys. This huge number demonstrates that "transgendered" thinking is actually the norm and could well outnumber cisgendered individuals.

The overlap between individuals born with either masculine or feminine personalities is huge. Women have already embraced this lifestyle, when will men? And if men do CDs will melt into obscurity.

[Vicky_Scot]

The only real figure I am interested in is my own and trying to get it a bit slimmer.

:heehee:

[Sarah Plumber]

Look at this way:

if only 2% crossdess in the UK.
Taking that there are 58,000,000 people.
50% male
therefore that equals just short of 290,000 of us!

In the US.
Taking that there are 301,000,000 people.
50% male
add another 3,000,000 or so..........

the rest of the world? How many? 6,602,224,175

same sums..........gives a total of over: 66,000,000.......... hardly a minority ..

So the world population of male crossdressers is greater than the population of the UK !! Now there's a population if we all lived together..LOL...

[Julogden]

3%-5% are the numbers I've seen quoted the most often, but I'm willing to bet that they're on the low side. From what I've seen, there are many CD's and potential CD's who are so closeted that they won't admit to being CD's even in an anonymous survey. I tend to think that the figure should be more close to 8-10%, but I have no way of proving that, of course, just my gut feeling based on what I've experienced in my 30 years of being in contact with the CD/TG community.

Carol

[Bernadina]

45% of males have CD tendencies. How many actually do it is probably a lot less. 15-20% is probably a good guess if you include every male who has worn panties or sockings on occasion. Full CDing is a much smaller number maybe 3-5%. Depends on whose study you read.

[Vivian Best]

Someone mentioned that we have some 9,000 members on our site. We have no way knowing what the percentage is that LOOK at the site and not join and if say we have just 1% that join, we're looking at a pretty good size number that for some reason visited. You've gotta wonder why that number would be lurking around a site called "Crossdressers" unless they were interested. It isn't a site you just stumble into with your eyes closed. I haven't a clue about what percentage of the male population is CD but my gut feeling is that it is larger than people think.

[Melinda Lou]

When I was 12 I used to think there was only one person in the whole world - just me!.. A very scary experience when you're so young. I was very ashamed of myself and also thought I must have been a little abnormal to feel that way.

:

When I was about that age and sneaking around trying on my cousins' and neighbor girls' panties, I was sure I was the only one. Now I wonder how many of my male school friends, etc. were going through the same thing. The shame of it is that at that age, it is still so hard to discuss, even with the Internet, that I am sure most boys in that situation still feel the same way. (If you're that age and reading this--you shouldn't be reading an adult board, for one thing, but don't get down on yourself. You're perfectly normal; you can like to dress and still like girls (or liking guys is OK too, just a different topic). Hang in there.)

My guess is that at any given time the majority of adults are wearing panties under their clothes--nearly all the women and a sizeable percentage (10%?) of men. That alone says to me that crossdressing is a widespread activity, just not widely talked about.

[Carly D.]

I tend to agree with Satrana (cool name by the way), there could be a 50/50 split in the male population of crossdressers, however there is hardly any way of ever knowing this figure. I'd like to think that the number is more than 2% but who knows... I would like to think the number is greater than that, but also there are those who really hide it.. it took until bout a week ago for me to finally join this forum after reading the posts here for two years, or about two years.. How can you all of a sudden tell someone that you have known your entire life that I crossdress and that I have dressed in one form or another (fem) for as long as I can remember and that includes as long as I've known them.. I know this is a bit off topic but it just goes to show that you may not know somebody as well as you thought.. look at your co-worker(s) and try to see them in some form of alternative lifestyle.. it's hard to do, trust me I've tried to see others in different ways than they outwardly present themselves...

[SiobhanW]

look at your co-worker(s) and try to see them in some form of alternative lifestyle..

Being in IT, the people around me can't really hide anything when it comes to electronic communications. One of the guys here is a small time porn entrepeneur, and one of the real senior guys and his wife are swingers who are into S&M. I don't go searching for this information on their workstations, just tend to find it going about my day-to-day duties. If I did actively monitor everyone, I'm sure I'd find quite a few more who are into something "unusual".

Fortunately, I'm able to hide MY secrets from everyone else.