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The implementation of the New Zealand government's recently developed statistical standard for gender identity has led to, and will stimulate further, collection of gender identity data in administrative records, population surveys, and perhaps the census. This will provide important information about the demographics, health service use, and health outcomes of transgender populations to allow evidence-based policy development and service planning.
However, the standard does not promote the two-question method, risking misclassification and undercounts; does promote the use of the ambiguous response category "gender diverse" in standard questions; and is not intersex inclusive.
Nevertheless, the statistical standard provides a first model for other countries and international organizations, including United Nations agencies, interested in policy tools for improving transgender people's health. (AmJPublicHealth. 2017; 107:217-221. doi:10.2105/AJPH. 2016.303465)
The 193 United Nations (UN) member states have pledged to "leave no one behind" in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda,1 and this includes them not leaving transgender people behind in realizing goal 3: "to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all." Official data on gender identity that are of high quality (i.e., valid, reliable, accurate, and acceptable to respondents) are crucial for transformative health research, policy, and action aimed at addressing the health disadvantage faced by transgender people. Policy tools for improving the collection of official gender identity data are urgently required.
We describe and critically analyze a novel such policy tool produced by the New Zealand government: a national statistical standard for gender identity data collection. To our knowledge, this is the first of its kind globally. The Australian government is currently also developing a statistical standard for gender identity,2,3 and transgender health experts have advised the US Department of Health and Human Services to also standardize their official gender identity data collections.4 Moreover, UN data initiatives for improving transgender health (e.g., the UN Development Program's LGBTI Inclusion Index)5 will require globally harmonized gender identity data.
THE HEALTH OF TRANSGENDER POPULATIONS
Gender identity is "each person's deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth."6(p6) People whose sex assigned at birth does not correspond fully with their gender identity (e.g., an assigned female person who identifies as a man) are commonly referred to as "transgender." People whose...