US plastic surgery statistics – Breast up, Nose reshaping down

Plastic surgery is at an all time high in the US despite the recession. It is booming and the numbers are up 5% on the year before – and a 77% increase on the year 2000. 11.6m procedures to be exact.

We have analysed data  from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons using Tableau Software. To get the most of this insight click on the visualisation below to bring the data to life. Click on procedures, gender, multiple values and/or basically anything you find interesting and watch how the visualisations update automatically.

The data shows that male procedures are on the rise – including 18,280 breast reductions (+6% on 2010), 63,585 nose jobs (-4%) and 13,217 hair transplants (+2%).

Calf augmentation registered the highest growth for both genders – females +60% and males +62%. The total count is still small (418).

Lip augmentation registered the steepest decline -21% and -17% for females and males respectively along with and collagen injections are down 5% too, to 160,000

What may seem the most unusual are the number of teenagers getting treated. Although it’s only 2% of the total, that’s still 218,909 procedures in a year – such as laser hair removal (66,664 procedures), nose jobs (35,005), boys having breast reductions (13,530) and botox injections (13,467). Another 8,525 teenage girls have breast implants.

Here are some of the key facts:

  • Botox is the biggest cosmetic treatment that Americans have – up 12% on last year. But it is also one of the cheapest procedures you can have, costing an average of $375 each time.
  • Lower body lift followed by Facelift are the most expensive procedure, averaging $7,247 and $6,321 respectively per procedure.
  • Breast augmentation is the top surgical procedure – up 2% on last year. That’s 296,203 procedures in 2010, costing an average of $3,351 each.
  • Hair Transplants and Pectoral Implants are more popular for men then women.
  • And finally, 40-55 year olds have done the highest number of procedures (6M or just under 50% of the total). The most popular procedure was Botox (3M or circa 50% of the procedures)