Almost 10,000 gender recognition certificates (GRCs) have been granted in the UK since their introduction two decades ago, with an increasing proportion going to young adults, analysis shows.
Some 1,169 GRCs were issued in the year to March 2025, more than three times the number in 2019/20, when it stood at just 364.
It is also the highest annual total since 2005/06, which was the first full year that the scheme – which allows a person’s acquired gender to be recognised legally in the country – was in operation.
The surge is likely to reflect recent changes in the certification process, including a big cut in fees, combined with more applications from young people.
Nearly a quarter (24%) of certificates granted in the latest year were for people born since 2000 – loosely known as Generation Z – and 68% were for those born since 1990, up from 4% and 41% respectively in 2019/20.
The analysis has been compiled by the PA news agency using data published by the Ministry of Justice, which shows a total of 9,633 GRCs had been granted in the UK up to March 2025.
The findings come after the Supreme Court’s ruling in April on the definition of sex, which followed a dispute centred on whether someone with a GRC recognising their gender as female should be treated as a woman under the UK 2010 Equality Act.
In a long-awaited judgment, the court confirmed the terms woman and sex in the 2010 Equality Act “refer to a biological woman and biological sex”.
This means transgender women with a GRC can be excluded from single-sex spaces if “proportionate”.
In the wake of the ruling the boss of Britain’s equalities regulator suggested that while it does not mean GRCs are “worthless”, their “efficacy” could be re-examined.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in the days after the ruling: “I think the next stage of litigation may well be tests as to the efficacy of the GRC, and or other areas.”
Asked about whether she thinks GRCs are now “worthless”, she replied: “We don’t believe they are. We think they’re quite important.”
Government advice on how to apply for a GRC states that the Supreme Court ruling does not affect the application process, but advises people to contact the EHRC if they have questions.
The Gender Recognition Act came into effect on April 4 2005, giving adults the right legally to change the gender that was recorded on their birth certificate.
This is done by applying for a GRC, a document that shows a person has satisfied the criteria for changing their legal gender.
Applications are made to the Gender Recognition Panel, a body of legal and medical experts, who issue a certificate only if the application meets the necessary criteria.
GRC applications hit a record 1,517 in 2024/25, up from 1,397 the previous year and 443 in 2019/20.
The application fee for a certificate was cut in May 2021 from £140 to £5, while there was a switch to online applications in July 2022.
A GRC is granted if the applicant has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria; has lived in the acquired gender for at least two years, and intends to live in that gender for the rest of their life.
PA analysis shows the age of those receiving GRCs has changed considerably over the past decade.
Some 63% of certificates issued in 2014/15 went to people born before 1980 – but by 2024/25 this had dropped sharply to just 17%.
By contrast, people born from 1980 onwards accounted for 83% of certificates in the most recent year, up from 37% a decade earlier.
More recently, there has been a steady increase in the proportion of certificates going to people born since 2000, up from 4% in 2019/20 to 24% in 2024/25.
The age group currently responsible for the biggest proportion is people born in the 1990s, who accounted for 45% of the total in the year to March 2025.
The balance in applications between males and females has also changed over time.
In 2005/06, the first full year that certificates were available, more than three-quarters (77%) were granted to people whose sex at birth was male, with just under a quarter (23%) going to those who were female.
By 2015/16 the gap between these percentages had narrowed at 67% and 33%, and in 2023/24 the figures were almost equal, at 52% for males and 48% for females.
In the most recent year of 2024/25, the gap widened slightly with 55% of certificates granted to people whose sex at birth was male and 45% for those who were female.
Nearly one in 10 people receiving certificates in the year to March 2025 were part of a married couple – a proportion that has been relatively stable since the law was changed in 2014 to allow some applicants to remain married while obtaining gender recognition.
Of the 1,169 certificates granted in 2024/25, 109 (9%) were for married applicants with the vast majority – 1,033 (88%) – for people who were single, while 27 were recorded as “other/unknown”.
