The Real Stats of British Surgery

Cosmetic surgery is becoming more popular year on year. Last year (2013) over 50,000 cosmetic procedures were performed in the UK and just over 45,000 of them were on women, accounting for more than 90% of total procedures. These results show an average 17% rise in conducted procedures since 2012, when there were just over 43,000 procedures conducted in the UK alone.

So, what are the most popular procedures that are conducted in the UK?

For women, breast augmentation takes the top spot with 11,123 procedures performed in the UK last year – a 13% rise on 2012 figures.

For men however, rhinoplasty – or nose jobs – was the most popular and a 9% increase saw 1,037 operations last year. Despite a 16% increase in the number of surgical cosmetic operations that were performed on men last year, they still only accounted for 9.5% of all procedures.

Interestingly, despite not taking the top spot, liposuction saw the biggest increase in the number of procedures that were performed compared with 2012. In 2013 there were 3,772 liposuction operations performed on females (2,638 in 2012) and 554 on males (433 in 2012) – a rise of 43 and 28% respectively.

These figures have been sourced from data released by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (Baaps). However, it doesn’t include non-surgical operations such as botox injections which are classed as lunchtime procedures. It is thought that these non-surgical procedures account for nine out of ten of the cosmetic procedures that are performed in the UK equalling a mammoth 75% of the cosmetic surgery market value.

Baaps have predicted that by 2015, the value of all cosmetic procedures conducted in the UK will be as much as £3.6 billion.