Support for freedom of gender expression has fallen in Canada, StatCan finds

Support declined among both women and men between 2018 and 2025, with lower levels recorded in rural areas. Other measures of LGBTQ+ acceptance, however, did not show the same decline.

Support for freedom of gender expression declined in Canada between 2018 and 2025, according to new Statistics Canada findings. The national survey also found somewhat lower support among rural respondents.

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Support for Canadians being able to express their gender however they choose fell between 2018 and 2025, according to Statistics Canada data showing a measurable change in attitudes toward gender expression.

In 2025, 77 per cent of women and 70 per cent of men agreed that people should be able to express their gender however they choose. In 2018, 85 per cent of women and 78 per cent of men agreed. Statistics Canada described the change as a decline in support for freedom of gender expression.

The findings were released May 22 as part of a Statistics Canada study examining perceptions of gender-based violence, gender equality, gender identity and gender expression. The study used data from the 2018 and 2025 Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces.

The decline does not mean most Canadians oppose freedom of gender expression. Majorities of both women and men continued to support it in 2025.

But the shift since 2018 was statistically significant. Statistics Canada's detailed table puts support among its Women+ category at 84.8 per cent in 2018 and 77.4 per cent in 2025. Among its Men+ category, support fell from 78.4 per cent to 69.6 per cent.

The Women+ and Men+ categories used in the detailed tables include some non-binary respondents and some respondents who did not state their gender. Statistics Canada said those responses were combined with women or men to protect confidentiality and data quality, and the same method was applied retrospectively to the 2018 data to allow comparisons.

The national findings should not be read as evidence that acceptance has declined across every LGBTQ+ issue.

One other measure in the same survey — whether same-sex and opposite-sex couples should have the same rights to adopt children — was essentially unchanged.

Among women, support for equal adoption rights was 78.7 per cent in 2018 and 79.6 per cent in 2025. Among men, it was 69.9 per cent in 2018 and 70.8 per cent in 2025.

That makes the distinction important: the clearest change identified by Statistics Canada is in attitudes toward gender expression, rather than evidence of a broad decline in acceptance of all LGBTQ+ people or rights.

Sexual orientation was also strongly associated with attitudes toward gender expression. In 2025, Statistics Canada reported that 96 per cent of LGB+ women supported people being able to express their gender however they choose, compared with 76 per cent of heterosexual women. StatCan uses LGB+ to include people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or another sexual orientation other than heterosexual.

The study also found differences depending on where people lived.

In the provinces, 78 per cent of women living in urban areas supported freedom of gender expression, compared with 75 per cent of women in rural areas. Among men, support was 70 per cent in urban areas and 66 per cent in rural areas.

Statistics Canada cautioned against assuming that rural residence itself explains that difference. Rural and urban populations differ in other characteristics associated with attitudes toward gender expression, including age.

British Columbia was somewhat above the national average among men. Seventy-two per cent of men in B.C. supported freedom of gender expression, compared with 70 per cent nationally. Statistics Canada also identified Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Quebec as jurisdictions where support among men was above the national average.

The findings have drawn concern from Egale Canada, the national organization advocating for 2SLGBTQI people. In a June 3 statement, Egale described the Statistics Canada findings as a troubling shift in support for gender diversity.

Statistics Canada's study documents the change in attitudes but does not establish what caused it.

For rural communities, the results provide a more specific question than whether Canada as a whole is becoming less accepting of LGBTQ+ people. The data show that support for freedom of gender expression has declined nationally and is somewhat lower in rural areas, while support for at least one long-established gay and lesbian equality issue — equal adoption rights — has remained stable.

What the national survey cannot show is how those changing attitudes are being experienced by transgender and gender-diverse people in individual communities.