Plastic Surgery Statistics

In the United States alone, there were almost 9 million cosmetic surgery operations done in the year 2003 according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. That's a whopping 33% more than the previous year. Here's a breakdown of the biggest trends.

Most Popular Cosmetic Procedures

Of the 8.79 million cosmetic procedures completed in the year 2003, about 7 million of them were minimally invasive, non-surgical procedures. The number one rank belongs to Botox injections. Since 2000, the number of Botox users rose almost 300%, and numbered 2.8 million. Trailing behind Botox in the non-invasive category were chemical peels and microdermabrasion (both with almost a million patients). Other popular choices for non-surgical procedures were laser hair removal and collagen injection with over half a million each.

There were about 1.7 million surgical operations completed in the same year. The top pick was nose reshaping with 350,000 done. Close behind was liposuction with 320,000 operations. Breast augmentation and eyelid surgery followed behind with about 250,000 apiece. The fifth most popular procedure was the facelift, with 130,000 operations.

The two hottest trends of the year were Botox (157% increase from the previous year) and Butt lifts (74% increase). Breast augmentations only rose 7% from the previous year.

Demographics

A majority of the cosmetic enhancements in the year 2003 still belonged to women. 7.4 million women (86% of all enhancements) simply dwarfed the 1.2 million men who decided to have a procedure. Both genders increased their respective number of operations by about 30% from the previous year.

The most popular procedure for women was liposuction (replacing breast augmentation for the first time) while for men it was nose reshaping. Both sexes preferred Botox as the top non-invasive procedure.

Of all patients, the biggest age group to pursue a cosmetic enhancement was between 35-50 years of age. They made up almost half of all cosmetic enhancement patients.

As well, half of the year's cosmetic surgery patients were repeat patients. A third of all patients also had multiple procedures done in one session. Half of all procedures were done in an office, with only 30% in the hospital and the remaining 16% in ambulatory surgical facilities.