People and places Sex, gender and gender identity
This page was last reviewed in July 2025. It will be updated following publication of the Government Statistical Service (GSS) new harmonised standards on sex and gender identity, which are currently in development.
There is currently no single definition of the terms “sex”, “gender”, or “gender identity” within the official statistics community. Office for National Statistics (ONS) releases should therefore clearly define and explain any terminology that they are using.
ONS releases should use the term “sex”, unless they are referring to:
- data sources that specifically ask about gender or gender identity
- commonly used and recognised terms, such as “the gender pay gap”
The dataset has sex categories of “female” and “male”.
The chart shows that the gender pay gap has steadily decreased over time.
ONS releases should not use the terms “sex” and “gender” interchangeably. Data collected on sex using the binary response options of “female” and “male” should not be conflated with data collected using concepts of gender or gender identity.
The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) has published guidance on collecting and reporting on data about sex and gender identity in official statistics (opens in a new tab) to support individuals and teams involved in statistics production.
ONS methodology publications must clearly set out the data sources and data collection methods used for statistical releases.
Women or girls and men or boys
If a population is made up of only adult females, it should be described as “women”. If it includes children, use “females”. If it is only children, use “girls”.
If a population is made up of only adult males, it should be described as “men”. If it includes children, use “males”. If it is only children, use “boys”.
The dataset includes females from ages 10 to 24 years.
The chart shows the social class of men aged 45 years and over.
The next publication will analyse reading ability for girls and boys aged under 16 years.
Census 2021 gender identity statistics
As of 12 September 2024, the gender identity estimates from Census 2021 in England and Wales are no longer accredited official statistics and are classified as official statistics in development.
An ONS report on the quality of Census 2021 gender identity data (opens in a new tab) explains that some respondents (notably those with lower levels of English language proficiency) may not have interpreted the Census 2021 gender identity question as intended.
Where releases include data on gender identity collected using the question developed for Census 2021, use the GSS Harmonisation team’s guidance on communicating the data’s uncertainty (opens in a new tab) , which recommends including the following information alongside your output:
These statistics have been collected using the gender identity question asked in the Census 2021 in England and Wales. It should be noted that in the Census 2021 data for England and Wales, patterns were identified that suggest that some respondents may not have interpreted the question as intended, notably those with lower levels of English language proficiency. Analysis of Scotland’s Census 2022 (opens in a new tab) , where the gender identity question was different, has added weight to this observation. More information can be found in the ONS sexual orientation and gender identity quality information report (opens in a new tab) and the additional guidance and quality information for users of gender identity estimates from Census 2021 in England and Wales (opens in a new tab)
Similar respondent error may have occurred during the data collection for these statistics so comparisons between subnational and other smaller group breakdowns should be considered with caution.