Cisgender and Binary

 

Now, let’s talk about the least popular terms in the Gender Census, Cisgender and Binary.

 

The Gender Census is an annual global online survey of people who have a gender that isn’t exclusively male or female.

Cisgender and Binary are consistently the least commonly chosen checkboxes in the survey.

They are also, arguably, incorrect answers.

In this article, we will explore what these terms mean, whether they’re incorrect answers, and why they're included in the survey, in the first place.

We will also examine how these terms have performed in the Gender Census over the years. 

Definitions

Cisgender refers to someone who identifies as the gender they were assigned at birth.

By contrast, transgender refers to someone who identifies as a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth.

Cisgender and transgender are opposite, or complementary, terms.




Binary refers to someone who has a gender that's either male or female.

By contrast, nonbinary refers to someone who has a gender that’s something other than exclusively male or female.

Common nonbinary genders include genderfluid and agender.




Binary and nonbinary are opposite, or complementary, terms.

Binary can be used to describe someone who is cisgender or transgender.

In practice, binary is often used in combination with transgender, in the compound term 'binary transgender,' to describe someone who identifies with the binary gender other than the one they were assigned at birth.

Survey Design

A large majority of people are both binary and cisgender.

Only a small percentage of respondents to the Gender Census are binary or cisgender, because the survey is designed to answer questions about the nonbinary community.




Before starting the survey, participants are required to agree with the following statement:

- Yes, I confirm that I don’t really fit into just one of the two boxes of “always, solely and completely a woman/girl” or “always, solely and completely a man/boy.”




Right off the bat, binary, as an identity term, doesn’t seem to be a viable answer, considering the statement above. 



Cisgender doesn’t really make sense, either.

Everyone, or almost everyone, is assigned either male or female at birth.

So identifying with the gender you were assigned at birth doesn’t appear to be a correct answer, considering the statement respondents must agree with to begin the survey.

I would argue that binary and cisgender are wrong answers in the Gender Census.

In certain circumstances, there might be a reason how they could be correct answers.

But from my analysis of the response data, I haven’t found a common reason for why participants chose these responses, that would be consistent with the design and intent of the survey.



 

So, why are cisgender and binary included as options in the survey, in the first place?  

 

Nonbinary and transgender are among the most popular terms in the Gender Census.  

Binary is included so we can compare the percent of respondents who select nonbinary, to the percent who select its opposite, binary.

And cisgender is included so we can compare the percent of respondents who select transgender, to the percent who select its opposite, cisgender.



I discussed how nonbinary and transgender have performed in the Gender Census in Top of the Charts and in my article on the results of the 2025 Gender Census.

Comparisons

Nonbinary has been the most popular term in the Gender Census, every year, from 2015 to 2025.

Binary has been the least popular term in the Gender Census, since it was added as a checkbox in 2018.



You can compare the performance of nonbinary and binary, in the Gender Census, in the graph below.

You can click on the images in this article to view larger versions of them.

I created the graphs in this series using Flourish, a website that allows users to create compelling visual aids. 

From 2015 to 2025, nonbinary’s average has been 64.1%.

For comparison, binary’s average has been 1.2%.

Transgender was the fourth most popular term in 2025, and the fifth most popular term from 2022 to 2024.

Cisgender has been the second least popular term in the Gender Census, every year, from 2017 to 2025.


You can compare the performance of transgender and cisgender, in the Gender Census, in the graph below.

From 2015 to 2025, transgender’s average has been 32%.

For comparison, cisgender’s average has been 2.1%.





This graph shows the lines for cisgender and binary, side by side. 

 
 

 
 

Next, let’s examine the graphs for cisgender and binary, individually.

Cisgender

Cisgender has appeared in the Gender Census every year, beginning in 2015.

Thus, it has been a checkbox option in the survey eleven times.

Cisgender’s minimum was 0.9% in 2016.

Cisgender’s maximum was 3.6% in 2025.



Cisgender’s average is 2.1%, and its range is 2.7%.



Cisgender was the least popular term in the Gender Census in 2015 and 2016.

Cisgender has been the second least popular term in the Gender Census, every year, from 2017 to 2025.

Binary

Binary has appeared in the Gender Census every year, beginning in 2018.

Binary has been the least commonly selected term in the Gender Census in each of the eight years it has appeared in the survey.

Binary’s minimum was 0.5% in 2018.

Binary’s maximum was 1.7% in 2023.


Binary’s average is 1.2%, and binary’s range is also 1.2%.

The Exceptions

Nonbinary and queer were the only two terms chosen by more than half of Gender Census respondents in 2025.

Almost all identity terms have majorities of respondents who selected nonbinary and queer.




Cisgender, binary, and none were the only terms that did not have majorities of respondents who identified as nonbinary.

You can see this in the table below.

 

GNC is an abbreviation for gender non-conforming.

(Person) is an abbreviation for "a person / human / [my name] / 'I'm just me.' " 

The full checkbox for "None" reads "None / I do not describe myself." 

 

The terms with the highest percentage of respondents who identified as nonbinary are listed at the top, and the terms with the smallest percentage of respondents who identified as nonbinary are listed at the bottom.

The entry showing the percent of Gender Census respondents, as a whole, who identify as nonbinary, is highlighted in yellow.

The terms listed above this entry are more likely to identify as nonbinary, than Gender Census respondents as a whole.

The terms listed below this entry are less likely to identify as nonbinary, than Gender Census respondents as a whole.

 

 

I obtained these results through a pairing analysis of terms in the 2025 Gender Census. 

I provided a walkthrough of the methodology behind my pairing analysis in Agender, Genderless, and Gendervoid. 
 

 

 

None and cisgender were the only two terms that did not have majorities of respondents who identified as Queer.

You can see this in the table below.

 

A majority of binary respondents identified as queer, although they were less likely to identify as queer than Gender Census respondents as a whole.

Conclusion

Binary and cisgender are the least commonly selected terms in the Gender Census.  

 

Binary refers to someone who has a gender that's either male or female. 

Cisgender refers to someone who identifies as the gender they were assigned at birth.



Nonbinary and transgender are among the most popular terms in the Gender Census. 

Their opposites, binary and cisgender, are included in the survey, for comparison purposes. 



Binary has been the least popular term in the Gender Census, since it was added as a checkbox in 2018. 

Cisgender was the least popular term in the Gender Census in 2015 and 2016.

Cisgender has been the second least popular term in the Gender Census, every year, from 2017 to 2025.



In 2025, cisgender, binary, and none were the only terms that did not have majorities of respondents who identified as Nonbinary. 

In 2025, none and cisgender were the only two terms that did not have majorities of respondents who identified as Queer.






Many of the recent articles in this series have discussed identity terms in the Gender Census that are included partially for the purposes of survey design. 

These include questioning, none, cisgender, and binary.



Upcoming articles in this series will return to discussing terms that are more clearly nonbinary genders. 

So join me next time, as we continue to explore LGBT identity, by the numbers.