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How does the rate of violence against transgender people compare to the overall population in the US as of 2025?
Executive summary
Available reporting and advocacy data show transgender people in the U.S. experience disproportionately high rates of some forms of violence — especially intimate-partner abuse, hate-motivated incidents tracked by civil-society monitors, and fatal attacks concentrated among young trans women of color — but national datasets are incomplete and offer mixed findings on overall murder rates compared with the cisgender population (not all sources agree) [1] [2] [3].
1. The headline: multiple trackers show disproportionate targeting of trans people
Civil-society trackers and advocacy groups reported concentrated anti-trans violence in recent years: GLAAD’s ALERT Desk counted 932 anti-LGBTQ incidents from May 2024–May 2025, and found 52% of those incidents targeted transgender and gender nonconforming people (485 incidents) with violent attacks producing 84 injuries and 10 deaths in that window [4] [5] [6]. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) documented at least 32 fatal anti-transgender violence victims in 2024 and has been tracking fatal anti-trans violence since 2013 [2]. Everytown’s Transgender Homicide Tracker and related research emphasize that most trans homicides involve firearms and skew young (59% under 30 in one summary) [7].
2. Intimate-partner and non-domestic violence: much higher reported rates among trans and nonbinary people
Domestic-violence specialists and surveys report very high prevalence of partner abuse among transgender and nonbinary people — for example, DVSN and related sources state over half (54%) of trans and nonbinary individuals experience some form of partner abuse, and that trans survivors show higher rates of hospitalization and other adverse outcomes [1]. Advocacy groups and academic literature also document that non-domestic abuse — from strangers, employers, service providers, and law enforcement — contributes to overall elevated exposure to violence for many trans people [1] [2].
3. Fatal violence: concentrated but measurement is contested
Advocacy reports say the U.S. records dozens of trans homicides annually and that victims are disproportionately young and people of color (HRC reported at least 32 in 2024; Transgender Law Center tracked 139 fatal incidents since 2017) [2] [8]. Yet academic analyses caution that comparisons of transgender versus cisgender homicide rates depend heavily on uncertain population denominators and undercounting of trans victims in official records; one peer-reviewed assessment and a review of reporting systems conclude that while some subgroups (notably young Black transfeminine people) face sharply elevated homicide risk, the overall national murder-rate comparison is sensitive to assumptions and incomplete data [3] [9].
4. Where the data disagree — why researchers reach different conclusions
Differences in conclusions arise from three core problems: [10] undercounting and inconsistent classification of victims’ gender identity in police and health records; [11] uncertainty about the size and demographics of the U.S. transgender population (denominators); and [12] reliance on advocacy-collected incident counts versus uniform national crime statistics. The PMC review explicitly notes nonuniform terminology and reporting gaps that make direct rate comparisons unreliable without improved data [3]. Historical academic estimates have produced a range — from lower to higher relative rates depending on assumptions about undercounting and prevalence — which explains why some studies conclude trans murder rates may be lower than cisgender rates while targeted subpopulations face much higher risk [9].
5. Geographic and demographic concentration matters
All major reports emphasize the violence is not evenly distributed: young trans women of color, especially Black trans women, are repeatedly identified as the most at-risk group for fatal anti-trans violence [2] [8]. HRC and Everytown highlight that many lethal incidents are intimate-partner or acquaintance violence and that firearms are commonly used in deadly attacks [2] [7]. This concentration means aggregated national rates can obscure extreme risk for specific communities.
6. Broader context: legislative climate, reporting spikes, and advocacy monitoring
Advocacy organizations link spikes in tracked incidents to hostile political rhetoric and legislation; GLAAD noted hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills in the 2025 legislative cycle alongside the ALERT Desk’s count of incidents [4] [5]. These monitors are explicit that their counts reflect incidents reported to or found by their networks rather than comprehensive national surveillance [4] [5].
7. Bottom line and limits of current knowledge
Available sources agree transgender people face disproportionately high exposure to many forms of violence and that fatal attacks are concentrated among young trans women of color; they disagree or caution about drawing a definitive conclusion that the overall homicide rate for all transgender people is higher than for cisgender people because national reporting and denominators are incomplete [1] [2] [3] [9]. If you need a precise rate comparison for policymaking or research, current reporting recommends investing in better, standardized data collection on gender identity in health and law-enforcement records and careful demographic denominator work before asserting a single national rate differential [3].