A list of 24 official genders produced by the Scottish Government includes 14 categories that nobody in Scotland says they belong to, census data reveals.
Kaukab Stewart, the SNP equalities minister, is facing claims she misled the Scottish Parliament by claiming that the list of two-dozen genders, which has been the subject of global ridicule, had been based on “common responses” in the census.
New findings published by respected policy analysis group, MurrayBlackburnMackenzie, which interrogated census data, found that in the majority of cases, nobody living in Scotland had said they identified with the genders on the formal list.
The Scottish Government chief statistician, Roger Halliday, included terms such as pangender, meaning a person feels they are “all possible genders at once,” and “autigender”, meaning they think about their gender “in the context of autism”.
However, official census data shows that no Scots who said they were transgender used those terms, or 12 others included, when asked to describe their gender identity.
The findings appear to contradict Ms Stewart’s claim, made in Holyrood on Thursday last week, that the categories had been developed to help with data collection “on the basis of the most common responses to the question in the 2022 census”.
Kath Murray, of MurrayBlackburnMackenzie, said the minister’s explanation “does not stand up to scrutiny” and urged the SNP to set out where the terms really came from.
“The Scottish Government appears to have added fourteen categories that are not found anywhere in the census data,” Dr Murray said. “We are not aware of any rationale nor an audit trail for this decision.
“There is, however, a strong argument against using public funds to develop, and then apply, a detailed coding framework that gives weight to barely-used esoteric terms coined on [blogging website] Tumblr.
“One thing seems clear from the analysis. The minister’s claim misled the Scottish Parliament.”
Misleading Holyrood is seen as a serious matter, with ministers who deliberately do so expected to resign and those who make honest mistakes expected to correct them “at the earliest opportunity”.
Other terms on the gender list, but which none of about 5.5 million Scottish residents identify as according to the census, are “bigender”, meaning a person has two genders at once, or demigender, meaning they “partially” but “not wholly” identify as a male or female.
JK Rowling has mocked the list, first revealed by The Telegraph, questioning whether “astro identities” of those whose star sign “doesn’t match the sign they were assigned at birth” would be next to gain formal recognition.
Elon Musk, the Tesla founder and world’s richest man, denounced it as “nuts”.
The list of 24 genders and definitions were developed to help public bodies categorise data provided by members of the public.
Census data included details of all terms which were used by 10 or more different people who said they were trans or had a “trans history”. They were then asked to describe their gender identity. The census found there were 19,990 trans people in Scotland.
“This is a prime example of how disconnected SNP ministers are from the real world and why Scots are sick of politicians at Holyrood,” Tess White, the shadow equalities minister for the Scottish Tories, said.
“This situation is so absurd that Kaukab Stewart has managed to trip herself up over how many supposed genders there are – but it is just common sense that the answer is two.
“If these categories didn’t come from the census, Kaukab Stewart must explain where exactly they came from and why they have been used in official guidance.
“Rather than obsessing over how many genders there are, taxpayers’ money would be better served if SNP ministers actually focussed on the real issues that matter to Scots, such as schools and our NHS.”
The Scottish Government was approached for comment.