In 2024/25, 42 percent of the population in the United Kingdom had ‘opted-in’ to the NHS organ donation register, which amounts to over 28 million people registered. This means that the individuals allow their organs to be donated after their death. The share of people registered has been generally increasing since 2009.Â
Deceased transplant activity in the UK
The number of deceased organ donors in the UK has increased alongside the rise in the opt-in registrations. In 2023/24, approximately 3.7 thousand deceased donor transplants took place in the UK, compared to around 2.6 thousand in 2009/10. Around 20.6 deceased organ transplants per million population (pmp) in the UK in 2022. Spain had the highest rate of organ donation after death with 46.7 pmp.Â
Rate of transplants in the UK
The overall rate of transplants in the UK was 69 transplants per million people in 2023, this was the fifteenth-highest transplant rate in Europe. Although, as of March 2024, there were still almost 8.5 thousand patients on the organ transplant waiting list in the UK, 6.6 thousand of whom were waiting for a kidney transplant.