probability RDDsurvey of transgender people, not of the public
Williams Institute (UCLA)
TransPop: the first national probability sample of transgender adults in the U.S. · Apr 2016 – Dec 31, 2018 · US national
Not a public-opinion poll. This surveys transgender people about their own lives, mostly
through nonprobability community samples. It describes a population and is not comparable with polls of the general public.
Methodology
- Pollster
- Williams Institute (UCLA) academic
- Sponsor
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (grant R01HD090468)
- Fielded
- Apr 2016 – Dec 31, 2018
- Population
- transgender adults 18+ - THIS IS A PROBABILITY SAMPLE OF TRANS PEOPLE, unlike the USTS
- Sample size
- 274
- Sample frame
- probability RDD
- Mode
- Respondents were screened by telephone on the Gallup Daily Tracking Survey (dual-frame RDD, landline and cellphone), then completed a self-administered questionnaire by web link or mailed paper questionnaire; $25 incentive.
- Margin of error
- not published in this report
- Weighting
- Gallup weights the Daily Tracking data for nonresponse and selection; TransPop applied study weights. The report warns the sampling frame excluded people with no phone, people with lower educational attainment, Spanish-only speakers, and (in Generations) people identifying solely as Asian or American Indian/Alaska Native.
- Geography
- US national
- Base notes
- 274 transgender adults. The companion Generations study contributed 812 LBQ cisgender women and 706 GBQ cisgender men, for a combined LGBTQ dataset of 1,747.
Sources
Verification note. IMPORTANT CONTRAST WITH THE USTS: TransPop is a national PROBABILITY sample of transgender adults (n=274), screened out of Gallup's RDD Daily Tracking Survey, while the USTS (n=27,715 in 2015 and 92,329 in 2022) is a very large nonprobability convenience sample. Where the two disagree, TransPop's design supports generalization and the USTS's does not, but TransPop's small n gives it wide confidence intervals. Screening question wording read verbatim from the Methods section; sample sizes read from the report's data tables.
Figures below are transcribed from these documents. Where they disagree with the source, the source governs.
Questions asked (2)
two-step sex-assigned-at-birth and current-gender-identity screening measure
Period 1 respondents were first screened using a question from the Gallup U.S. Poll: 'Do you, personally, identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender?'
Period 1 (April 2016-August 2016): 'What sex were you assigned at birth, on your original birth certificate?' [female / male], followed by 'Which of the following terms best describes your current gender identity?' [woman / man / trans woman (male-to-female) / trans man (female-to-male) / nonbinary or genderqueer]. Period 2 (June 2017-December 2018): 'On your original birth certificate, was your sex assigned as female or male?', followed by 'Do you currently describe yourself as a man, a woman, or transgender?', with transgender respondents further asked if they were a 'trans woman (male-to-female)', 'trans man (female-to-male)', or 'nonbinary or genderqueer'.
Wording notes: the wording was revised between periods after testing, reducing 'decline to answer' and 'don't know' from 7% to 0.1% - a rare published measurement experiment on trans identity items
neutral — The two-step measure is the standard recommended approach and does not lean; documenting the version change and its effect on item nonresponse is unusually transparent.
Subgroup figures (2)
Surveys of trans peopleparaphrasedother
conversion therapy exposure, military service and household income among transgender adults
20% of transgender people had been exposed to conversion therapy [compared with] 9% of GBQ cis men. 10% of transgender people have served in the military [compared with] 4% of LBQ cis women. 48% of LBQ cis women and transgender people lived in a low income household [compared with] 32% of GBQ cis men.
Wording reconstructed from: Williams Institute publication page for 'LGBTQ People in the US: Select Findings from the Generations and TransPop Studies', Data Points section. Report restatements, not literal items.
neutral — Behavioural and demographic items.
Subgroup figures (6)