"The source said it was now clear the 2021 figures on gender, released in January, “hugely overestimated” the number of transgender people – a view they said was shared by multiple ministers.
The inquiry into the findings was sparked after academics warned the wording of the census question, “is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?” may have skewed the answers for respondents whose first language is not English, or who are less familiar with the language of gender identity.
Earlier this year, academics found those who speak English poorly were five times more likely to be transgender.
Michael Biggs, a professor of sociology at the University of Oxford, claimed that confusion over the question may explain why the London boroughs of Newham and Brent, which have a significant percentage of residents who speak English as a second language, recorded the highest proportion of transgender people in the UK.
Ed Humpherson, the head of the OSR, has written to the ONS setting out its initial observations.
His letter said the ONS team that carried out the “quality assurance” of the data “agreed that, with more time to look at all combinations of variables, for example looking at gender identity and ethnicity, it may have identified areas for additional probing and analysis.”"
There were threads on here discussing this both before and after the data were released.