Britain has recorded more legal gender transitions than ever before. Government statistics show a sharp upward spike in the number of gender recognition certificates (GRCs) being issued—with younger applicants making up much of the demand.
Almost 10,000 GRCs—which reflected the holder claiming to have ‘changed gender’, even without corresponding medical interventions—were granted inside the UK. In the year to March 2025, 1,169 certificates (GRCs) were issued.
A GRC means that a person’s ‘acquired’ gender, different from their sex at birth, will be recognised legally. Measured in terms of issued certificates, last year was the busiest for the government since the scheme started in 2005. (In 2019-20, the total was just 364, even allowing for the Covid-19 pandemic.)
Moving forward, the utility of having a GRC has been called into question by Britain’s Supreme Court ruling that, for the purposes of the Equality Act (2010), sex is defined in law as being biological. Bolstered by a confusing tendency (on both sides of the argument) to treat sex and gender as interchangeable, it remains unclear if demand for such documentation will continue to rise.
