TRANSGENDER YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH STATISTICS
Transgender and nonbinary young people report higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation than their peers. This difference is driven not by transgender identity itself but by the negative stigma that transgender identity carries among some groups, leading to social exclusion, bullying, discrimination, and other anti-social behaviors against trans youth. Conversely, support, acceptance, and access to care are linked to markedly better mental health, according to those same studies.
This page gathers what the most credible current data say, and what they do not say, in plain language. You may see concepts described with different terms; some studies use terms like “gender-affirming care” or refer to all “LGBTQ+ youth” instead of specifically “trans youth.” Where relevant, we stick with the wording employed by the research, like when we are citing a specific body of work; elsewhere, however, we prefer the more all-encompassing “supportive care.”
CONTENT NOTE
This page discusses suicide risk, depression, and anxiety among young people. If you or someone you love needs support right now, the resources are gathered here, and the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 by call or text.
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Elevated risk is real but not inherent. Trans and nonbinary youth face higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide risk, tied to stigma and mistreatment – not to being transgender.
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According to the CDC, LGBTQ+ youth are more than 3x as likely to attempt suicide than their peers.
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Support changes the numbers. Young people with accepting families, schools, and communities report meaningfully lower rates of suicide attempts.
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The Trevor Project’s 2025 U.S. National Survey found 46% of transgender and nonbinary youth seriously considered suicide in the past year, a rate of suicidality 16% higher than cisgender (or non-transgender) LGBTQ peers.
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Anti-transgender state laws have been linked, in peer-reviewed research, to increases in past-year suicide attempts among trans and nonbinary young people.
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Numbers describe groups, not individuals. A statistic about a population never predicts how any one young person is doing.
WHAT THE MOST RECENT U.S. DATA SHOWS
KEY TAKEAWAYS
WHY THESE NUMBERS LOOK THE WAY THEY DO
The single most important thing to understand before reading any figure on this page: elevated mental health risk among transgender young people is a response to how they are treated, not a feature of being transgender. Researchers call this the minority stress model. The ongoing strain of stigma, rejection, and discrimination raises the risk of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. When that strain eases, the numbers improve.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry all describe this same pattern: minority stress, not gender identity, drives the disparities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) latest available (2024) data on suicide among young people in the United States shows that suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24 in the United States. LGBTQ+ young people are more than three times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers.
To examine LGBTQ+ youth mental health in detail, the figures below come from The Trevor Project’s 2025 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People, which gathered responses from more than 18,000 LGBTQ+ young people ages 13 to 24 across all 50 states. One note on precision: this survey covers LGBTQ+ youth broadly; where a figure is specific to transgender and nonbinary respondents, it is labeled that way.
SUICIDE RISK
In the past year, 46% of transgender and nonbinary young people seriously considered suicide, compared with 30% of their cisgender (or non-transgender) LGBTQ peers, according to the Trevor Project’s 2024 survey. Across all LGBTQ+ respondents, 12% reported a suicide attempt in the past year.
Read these as measures of distress under pressure, not of anything inevitable. The same survey is explicit that these outcomes track with victimization and lack of support.
DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND ACCESS TO CARE
A large share of LGBTQ+ young people who wanted mental-health care in the past year were unable to get it, most often citing cost, fear of not being taken seriously, and worry about being outed. Transgender and nonbinary youth report these barriers at especially high rates.
WHAT SUPPORT CHANGES
The protective side of the data is just as strong as the risk side. Trans and nonbinary young people reported lower rates of attempting suicide when the people they live with respected their pronouns, when they had access to a gender-neutral bathroom at school, and when they lived in accepting homes and communities.
Peer-reviewed research points in the same direction. A widely cited study found that access to supportive care was associated with lower odds of depression and suicidality among transgender and nonbinary young people. (Journal of Adolescent Health, via The Trevor Project)
HOW LAW AND POLICY SHOW UP IN THE DATA
Policy is not a background detail here; it is measurable. A 2024 peer-reviewed study in Nature Human Behaviour found that anti-transgender state laws were directly associated with increases in past-year suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary young people. (Lee et al., Nature Human Behaviour, 2024)
HOW TO READ THESE STATISTICS RESPONSIBLY
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Association is not causation. Most of these findings show that two things move together (for example, support and lower suicide risk). That is a strong and consistent pattern, but survey data describe links, not proof that one directly causes the other.
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Group data are not a personal forecast. A population statistic says nothing certain about any one individual young person.
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Samples differ. Large surveys like Trevor’s are designed to reach many diverse respondents, not to be perfectly nationally representative; compare across years and sources with that in mind.
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Beware of numbers stripped of context. A figure quoted without its source, date, and framing can badly mislead. Every number on this page is dated and linked to its origin.
