Nearly a Quarter of Reed Students are Nonbinary, New Data Shows

The Office for Institutional Research recently updated the data on the Fall 2024 student body to show that 22% of enrolled students are nonbinary. These statistics come as part of Reed’s “Detailed Enrollment” statistics, which are accessible on the Reed Institutional Research web page, and also include a full breakdown of Reed students’ gender demographics. Out of a total population of 1,358 students, in addition to the 22% of students who are nonbinary. 44% are female and 33% are male.

Prior to the Fall 2024 semester, the “Detailed Enrollment” data listed on the Reed website did not include nonbinary as a category for gender, so this recent change establishes options beyond the binary gender system that better reflects the diversity of the student body.

According to Director of Institutional Research Mike Tamada, the data for these statistics is largely self-reported from IRIS. “We use that self-reported information when it exists (most students do self-report in IRIS). If not, then we use the legal sex data that's in Reed's main database (Banner), which ultimately comes from the Common App's question about the applicant's legal sex,” Tamada explained. The ability to self-report gender has been functional in IRIS since 2017, and while it cannot be concluded that all of the student gender data used to compile these statistics is updated or accurate, the consideration of self-reported gender status in the first place marks an important step in Reed’s inclusion of nonbinary students. 

Although official statistics on student gender have not been published before this year, the Office for Institutional Research has collected gender data based on the IRIS self-reporting function since its implementation. “The number of nonbinary students at Reed was initially low, probably because students hadn't yet gone to IRIS to enter their gender info. It has been rising since then, but this year's percentage, 22%, is the same as last year's,” said Tamada.

Dean of Admission Milyon Trulove corroborated this trend, saying, “We’ve seen steady growth in students identifying as non-binary over the last 9 years.” Trulove expressed how understanding the scale of diverse gender identities at Reed has influenced decisions from the Admissions perspective. “To support students who want to know how their identity will impact their college experience, we offer to connect students to community members with a shared identity, collate supporting resources, and take a personalized approach to counseling students through the admission process,” he explained. 

Compared to the country as a whole, Reed’s nonbinary population is notably large. Data from the Pew Research Center collected in 2022 shows that nonbinary people make up 1% of the United States population, though among those between the ages of 18 and 30, that number rises to 3%. Still, it is clear that the Reed community includes a number of nonbinary students much greater than the estimated national average. 

To many students, the comparably high percentage of nonbinary people at Reed will come as no surprise. Reed has a well-established culture of acceptance and support for the queer and trans community, as evidenced by its place as #1 in the Princeton Review’s list of LGBTQ+-friendly colleges. Beyond official reports, Reed’s queer-friendliness can be seen in how the greater community values free self-expression: Queer Student Union leader Esmée Silverman ‘25 spoke to this culture of acceptance, saying “I think people just feel comfortable here. People feel comfortable expressing themselves, being able to experiment with something they may not have been able to experiment with before.” 

While the large percentage of nonbinary students at Reed is cause to find pride in diversity, it also underscores the need for intersectional queer communities that represent the overlapping marginalized identities that many nonbinary people hold. “We need to be working towards making room for disagreement and having conversations that ultimately revolve around the fact that we’re all queer and we need to figure out how to make a community that works best for everybody,” said Silverman. The nuances of lived experience for nonbinary students, like all of the diverse perspectives on campus, cannot always be easily reflected in a set of statistics, making it vital to listen to and support the voices of our community members.