Kidney Donor in America 2026
Kidney donation remains one of the most critical — and most urgent — public health issues in the United States today. With over 92,000 Americans actively waiting for a kidney transplant as of early 2026, and new patients being added to the national transplant waiting list every eight minutes, the gap between organ supply and demand has never felt wider. Despite record-breaking progress over the past several years, the numbers continue to tell a story of both hope and serious need. The United States performs more kidney transplants than any other country in the world, yet thousands of people still die every year before a matching organ becomes available.
What makes kidney donor statistics in the US in 2026 particularly compelling is the pace of recent change. According to the most recent data released by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) under the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), 2024 marked the first year in American history that more than 48,000 organ transplants were performed — a record driven significantly by growth in kidney transplantation. This momentum, fueled by both policy reforms and expanding living donor programs, paints a picture of a system working hard to catch up. Understanding the full scope of these numbers is essential for patients, families, healthcare professionals, and anyone who has ever considered becoming a donor.
Interesting Facts about Kidney Donor in the US 2026
Before diving deep into the data, here is a snapshot of the most striking and telling facts about kidney donation in America, sourced exclusively from official U.S. government data portals including OPTN/HRSA, UNOS, and the SRTR 2023 Annual Data Report.
| Kidney Donor Fact | Figure / Detail |
|---|---|
| Total kidney transplants performed in 2024 | 27,759 |
| Percentage increase in kidney transplants from 2023 to 2024 | 1.6% |
| Total organ transplants performed in 2024 (all organs) | 48,149 — a new all-time record |
| Americans currently on the kidney transplant waiting list | Over 92,000 |
| Total people on the national transplant waiting list (all organs) | Over 103,000 |
| People who die each day waiting for any organ transplant | 13 per day |
| How often a new person is added to the transplant waiting list | Every 8 minutes |
| Total deceased donors in 2024 | 16,988 |
| Total living donors in 2024 | 7,030 — the second highest annual total ever |
| Deceased donors aged 50 and older in 2024 | 8,191 — accounting for 48.2% of all deceased donors |
| Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) donors in 2024 | 7,280 — a 23.5% increase over 2023 |
| Donors who died from drug intoxication in 2024 | 2,066 — a 23.9% decrease versus 2023 |
| Kidney nonuse rate in 2023 (recovered but not transplanted) | 27.9% — meaning over 1-in-4 recovered kidneys went unused |
| 5-year graft survival rate for Living Donor Kidney Transplant (ages 18–34) | 90.0% |
| 5-year graft survival rate for Deceased Donor Kidney Transplant (ages 18–34) | 82.2% |
| New kidney candidates added to waiting list in 2023 | 47,838 — a 5.6% increase from 2022 and the highest on record for a decade |
| Proportion of kidney donors registered in the US (as of 2022) | 170 million Americans registered as organ donors |
| Adults who support organ donation but are not signed up | 90% support, but only 60% are actually registered |
| Record kidney transplants achieved in 2023 | 28,142 total kidney transplants — a record at the time |
| Pretransplant mortality rate in 2023 | 5.0 deaths per 100 patient-years — down from 6.2 in 2021 |
Source: OPTN/HRSA, UNOS 2024 Preliminary Data Release (January 2025); OPTN/SRTR 2023 Annual Data Report, published 2025; organdonor.gov (HRSA), updated May 2025
These facts alone underscore the extraordinary complexity of kidney donation in the United States in 2026. On one hand, the numbers reveal meaningful progress — record transplants, surging DCD donation rates, and more living donors than nearly any year in the past decade. On the other hand, the stubborn reality of over 92,000 people on the kidney waiting list, combined with a kidney nonuse rate hovering near 28%, signals that the system still has enormous room to improve. The 13 daily deaths among people waiting for any organ — a large share of whom are waiting for kidneys — is a number that demands continued urgency from policymakers, medical professionals, and the public alike.
What is equally striking is the cultural and demographic story embedded in these facts. The reality that 90% of American adults support organ donation, yet only 60% are actually signed up, reveals a significant conversion gap that public health campaigns continue to grapple with. Meanwhile, the shift toward older deceased donors — with nearly half of all 2024 deceased donors being aged 50 or older — reflects both the aging of the U.S. population and evolving clinical practices around donor eligibility. These facts form the essential backdrop for every detailed statistic that follows.
Total Kidney Transplant Volume in the US 2026
| Year | Total Kidney Transplants | Year-Over-Year Change | Deceased Donor KT | Living Donor KT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | ~23,400 | — | ~17,600 | ~5,800 |
| 2020 | ~22,817 | -2.5% | ~17,544 | ~5,273 |
| 2021 | ~24,670 | +8.1% | ~19,369 | ~5,301 |
| 2022 | 26,309 | +6.6% | ~20,900 | ~5,400 |
| 2023 | 28,142 | +7.0% | ~22,438 | ~5,700 |
| 2024 | 27,759 | -1.4% (prelim.) | ~22,000+ | ~5,700+ |
Source: OPTN/HRSA OPTN/SRTR 2023 Annual Data Report (published 2025); OPTN Preliminary 2024 Data, HRSA (January 2025)
Looking at the trajectory of total kidney transplants in the US, the story of the last several years is one of consistent, meaningful growth. The 28,142 kidney transplants performed in 2023 stood as the highest annual total ever recorded at the time — a 7% increase from 2022 — and was driven primarily by an increase in deceased donor kidney transplants (DDKT). The 2024 preliminary figures of 27,759 reflect that transplant volume has broadly plateaued at a historic high, with seasonal and methodological reporting factors potentially influencing the slight year-over-year dip from the 2023 record. What is important to understand, though, is that the overall system capacity — total donors recovered, total organs made available — continued to expand in 2024 even as kidney-specific numbers leveled. The robust five-year growth rate of 23.3% in total organ transplants from 2019 to 2024 tells the bigger story: the U.S. transplant system has significantly scaled up since the COVID-19 era disruptions.
What makes this volume data particularly significant for kidney donor statistics in the US in 2026 is the context of unmet demand. Even as kidney transplants approached and then briefly exceeded 28,000 per year, over 47,838 new candidates were added to the kidney waiting list in 2023 alone. That means the inflow of new patients still outpaces transplant completion rates. The gap is slowly narrowing — pretransplant mortality improved meaningfully from 2021 to 2023 — but the fundamental reality is that kidney supply in the US continues to lag far behind kidney demand, making donor registration and living donation programs more critical than ever.
Kidney Transplant Waiting List Statistics in the US 2026
| Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| Total patients on national transplant waiting list (all organs) | 103,223+ |
| Patients waiting specifically for a kidney transplant | Over 92,000 |
| Active waiting list candidates (all organs) | ~61,142 |
| New kidney candidates added to waiting list in 2023 | 47,838 — highest in a decade |
| New kidney candidates added in 2022 | ~45,300 |
| Largest age group on waiting list | Adults aged 50–64 years (approximately 43,866 as of late 2023) |
| Average wait time for deceased donor kidney (US) | 3 to 5 years |
| Percentage of new kidney candidates still waiting after 3 years (2018–2020 cohort) | 29.9% |
| Percentage who received a deceased donor transplant within 3 years | 30.8% |
| Percentage who received a living donor transplant within 3 years | 13.5% |
| Percentage who died waiting within 3 years | 6.8% |
| Number of U.S. transplant centers | Over 250 |
| US regions/OPOs used for organ matching | 58 Organ Procurement Organizations in 11 regions |
Source: UNOS/OPTN National Data (organdonor.gov, HRSA, updated May 2025); OPTN/SRTR 2023 Annual Data Report; American Kidney Fund (SRTR 2024 Waiting Times Tool)
The kidney transplant waiting list is, in practical terms, the most visible measure of how far the U.S. donation system still needs to go. With more than 92,000 Americans waiting for a kidney — representing roughly 89% of all organ transplant candidates — kidney disease dominates the transplant landscape in a way that no other organ does. The concentration of waiting patients in the 50–64 age group reflects the prevalence of chronic kidney disease in middle age, often resulting from conditions like diabetes and hypertension that disproportionately affect this demographic. The reality that the largest cohort of waiting patients are in their peak productive years makes this a workforce and economic issue, not just a medical one.
The waiting time data is among the most sobering in all of kidney donor statistics in the US in 2026. For patients who entered the waiting list in the 2018–2020 window, nearly 30% were still waiting three years later, and roughly 7% had died without ever receiving a transplant. These figures are improving slowly — pretransplant mortality dropped from 6.2 deaths per 100 patient-years in 2021 to 5.0 in 2023 — but the improvement is hard-won and fragile. The typical wait of 3 to 5 years for a deceased donor kidney demands immense resilience from patients, and underscores why the growth of living donation — which dramatically cuts wait times — is so strategically important for the national transplant system.
Deceased Kidney Donor Statistics in the US 2026
| Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| Total deceased donors in 2024 | 16,988 |
| Deceased donor transplants performed in 2024 | 41,119 — first year ever exceeding 40,000 |
| Year-over-year increase in deceased donor transplants (2023 to 2024) | +3.6% |
| Consecutive years of new deceased donor transplant records | 12 straight years |
| Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) donors in 2024 | 7,280 — a +23.5% increase vs. 2023 |
| Donation after Brain Death (DBD) donors in 2024 | 9,706 — a 7% decrease vs. 2023 |
| Deceased donors aged 50 and older in 2024 | 8,191 — 48.2% of all deceased donors |
| Proportion of deceased kidney donors aged 35 or younger (2023) | 31.1% — down from 34.0% in 2022 |
| Proportion of deceased kidney donors aged 50+ (2023) | 41.0% — up from 37.9% in 2022 |
| Donors who died from drug intoxication in 2024 | 2,066 — lowest since 2021; a 23.9% decrease from 2023 |
| Kidney nonuse rate in 2023 | 27.9% — up from 26.6% in 2022 |
| Nonuse rate for biopsied kidneys (2023) | 41.4% |
| Nonuse rate for kidneys from donors aged 65+ (2023) | 72.2% |
| Nonuse rate for kidneys with KDPI ≥ 85% (2023) | 72.5% |
| Record DCD kidney transplants in 2023 | 26.1% of all deceased donor kidney transplants came from DCD donors |
Source: OPTN/HRSA Preliminary 2024 Data (January 2025); OPTN/SRTR 2023 Annual Data Report, published in American Journal of Transplantation (2025)
The surge in Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) donors is one of the most defining trends in deceased kidney donor statistics in the US right now. DCD donation increased by a remarkable 23.5% in 2024, reflecting major clinical advances that have made it more feasible to successfully transplant DCD kidneys — especially for lungs and livers — without compromising recipient outcomes. This shift is reshaping the donor pool, and DCD kidneys now account for more than a quarter of all deceased donor kidney transplants in the US. This matters enormously for the kidney waiting list because DCD expands the available donor pool significantly beyond what brain-death donation alone could provide.
At the same time, the kidney nonuse rate of 27.9% in 2023 is a persistent and frustrating challenge. Nearly one in four recovered kidneys is never transplanted — a figure that rises sharply for older donors and those with higher KDPI scores. For kidneys from donors aged 65 and older, the nonuse rate was a staggering 72.2%. This waste represents potential transplants that never happen and waiting-list patients who remain in limbo. UNOS has proposed reforms — including financial incentives for transplant hospitals that accept and transplant medically complex kidneys — that could, by some estimates, prevent an additional 4,000 deaths annually if implemented broadly. The declining rate of drug intoxication-related donors (down nearly 24% in 2024) also signals a shift in the national overdose landscape, removing a source that had grown significantly in recent years.
Living Kidney Donor Statistics in the US 2026
| Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| Total living donors in 2024 (all organs) | 7,030 — second highest total ever, surpassed only by 2019 |
| Most common living donation type | Whole kidney (the vast majority of living donors donate a kidney) |
| Most common age range for living kidney donors | 35 to 49 years |
| Living donors aged 65 and older in 2024 | 476 — a 14.2% increase vs. 2023; more than double the rate pre-2016 |
| 5-year graft survival: Living Donor KT, ages 18–34 | 90.0% |
| 5-year graft survival: Living Donor KT, ages 65+ | 80.2% |
| 5-year graft survival: Deceased Donor KT, ages 18–34 | 82.2% |
| 5-year graft survival: Deceased Donor KT, ages 65+ | 66.1% |
| Delayed graft function rate among adult kidney recipients in 2023 | 26.1% — elevated but plateauing |
| Median graft survival for living donor kidneys (2014–2017 era transplants) | Estimated 19.2 years (vs. 12.1 years for the 1995–1999 era) |
| Median graft survival for deceased donor kidneys (2014–2017 era) | Estimated 11.7 years (vs. 8.2 years in the 1995–1999 era) |
| Disparity in living donor access | Non-White patients and publicly insured patients face persistent lower access to LDKT |
| Kidney from HCV NAT+ donor nonuse rate in 2023 | 27.2% — down dramatically from 43.0% in 2017 |
Source: OPTN/HRSA Preliminary 2024 Data (January 2025); OPTN/SRTR 2023 Annual Data Report (PubMed/PMC, 2025); SRTR long-term graft survival analysis (American Journal of Transplantation, 2022)
Living kidney donation is widely regarded as the gold standard for kidney transplantation — and the statistics make clear why. A living donor kidney provides recipients with a median graft survival of approximately 19.2 years, compared to about 11.7 years for deceased donor kidneys. The 5-year graft survival advantage of living donor transplants over deceased donor transplants holds across every age group, and the differences are most pronounced among younger recipients. This is not a marginal benefit; for a 30-year-old recipient, the choice between a living donor kidney and a deceased donor kidney can mean the difference between one transplant over a lifetime and potentially needing a second re-transplant within a decade.
Despite these superior outcomes, access to living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) remains deeply unequal in the United States. The OPTN/SRTR 2023 Annual Data Report explicitly identifies persistent disparities affecting non-White patients and those with public insurance. This inequity is one of the central concerns in kidney donor statistics in the US in 2026 because it means that the patients who face the highest burden of kidney disease — Black, Hispanic, and lower-income Americans — are often the least likely to benefit from the best available treatment option. Expanding living donation through policy, education, and financial protection for donors is one of the most direct levers available to address this gap. The growing number of living donors aged 65 and older is an encouraging sign that the eligible donor pool is broader than previously assumed.
Kidney Transplant Outcomes and Graft Survival in the US 2026
| Outcome Metric | Living Donor KT | Deceased Donor KT |
|---|---|---|
| 1-year patient survival (2016–2018 cohort) | 97.4% (overall KT) | 97.4% (overall KT) |
| 5-year patient survival (2016–2018 cohort) | 86.6% (overall KT) | 86.6% (overall KT) |
| 5-year graft survival, ages 18–34 | 90.0% | 82.2% |
| 5-year graft survival, ages 65+ | 80.2% | 66.1% |
| 5-year patient survival with DDKT, KDPI 0–20% | 91.2% | — |
| 5-year patient survival with DDKT, KDPI ≥ 85% | 71.7% | — |
| Estimated median graft survival (2014–2017 era) | ~19.2 years | ~11.7 years |
| Delayed graft function rate in adult recipients (2023) | — | 26.1% overall |
| Adjusted hazard of graft failure (2014–2017 vs 1995–1999 era) | Improved by ~54% | Improved by ~54% |
| Nonuse of HCV NAT+ kidneys (2023) | — | 27.2% (vs. 43.0% in 2017) |
| DCD kidney transplants as % of all DDKT (2023) | — | 26.1% |
Source: OPTN/SRTR 2023 Annual Data Report (American Journal of Transplantation, 2025; PubMed ID 39947805); SRTR long-term graft survival analysis (American Journal of Transplantation, 2022)
Kidney transplant outcomes in the United States have improved dramatically over the past three decades, and the current data represents the best survival rates the country has ever recorded. The adjusted hazard of graft failure has fallen by more than 54% from the mid-1990s to the 2014–2017 transplant era, meaning that a recipient transplanted today has roughly half the risk of graft failure compared to a recipient from the 1990s. This progress is attributable to advances in immunosuppression, donor selection criteria, surgical techniques, and post-transplant monitoring protocols. For younger recipients receiving a living donor kidney, the 5-year graft survival rate now reaches 90% — a figure that would have seemed remarkable just two decades ago.
However, the outcome data also highlights persistent gaps that continue to define kidney donor statistics in the US in 2026. The sharp difference in 5-year graft survival by donor quality — from 91.2% for the best KDPI kidneys down to 71.7% for KDPI ≥ 85% — underscores why decisions about accepting or declining marginal donor kidneys are so consequential. The 26.1% delayed graft function (DGF) rate among adult deceased donor recipients, while appearing to have plateaued, represents a clinically significant complication that increases post-transplant hospitalization, costs, and long-term graft risk. The dramatically declining nonuse of HCV-positive donor kidneys — from 43% in 2017 to just 27.2% in 2023 — is a genuine success story driven by the availability of direct-acting antiviral therapies, and points to what the system can achieve when clinical barriers are addressed systematically.
Kidney Donor Demographics and Racial Disparities in the US 2026
| Demographic Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| Hispanic/Latino transplant recipients in 2024 (all organs) | 9,097 — a +6.5% increase vs. 2023 |
| Black non-Hispanic transplant recipients in 2024 (all organs) | 10,990 — a +1.5% increase vs. 2023 |
| Proportion of kidney transplant waiting list from racial/ethnic minority groups | Majority — due to higher rates of kidney disease in minority populations |
| Largest group on transplant waiting list by age | Ages 50–64 (~43,866 candidates as of late 2023) |
| Largest age group among deceased donors in 2022 | Ages 50 to 64 |
| Most common age range for living donors | Ages 35 to 49 |
| Living donors aged 65 and older in 2024 | 476 — up 14.2% vs. 2023; more than double pre-2016 levels |
| Americans registered as organ donors as of 2022 | 170 million |
| US adult organ donation support rate | 90% (per 2019 National Survey) |
| US adult organ donor registration rate | ~60% (per 2019 National Survey) |
| Increase in organ donors over the past 10 years (2015–2024) | 87% |
| Disparity in LDKT access | Non-White patients and publicly insured patients face persistently lower rates of living donor transplant |
Source: OPTN/HRSA Preliminary 2024 Data (January 2025); organdonor.gov (HRSA, May 2025); 2025 National Survey of Organ Donation Attitudes and Practices (HRSA); OPTN/SRTR 2023 Annual Data Report (2025)
One of the most important and underreported dimensions of kidney donor statistics in the United States is the profound racial and demographic disparity that cuts through every layer of the system. Racial and ethnic minority groups represent a majority of the kidney transplant waiting list, driven by the higher prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease in Black, Hispanic, and Native American populations. This means that a system that is not actively working to diversify and expand the donor pool will inevitably fail these communities at a disproportionate rate. The fact that Hispanic/Latino recipients grew by 6.5% in 2024 and Black recipients by 1.5% is an encouraging sign, but it is incremental progress against a very large baseline gap.
The demographic shift in the donor population is also noteworthy. The rapid rise of living donors aged 65 and older — now more than double the annual totals from before 2016 — challenges the long-held clinical assumption that older individuals are unsuitable living donors. More than 170 million Americans are registered as organ donors, but the 30-percentage-point gap between the 90% who support donation and the 60% who have actually signed up represents millions of potential donors who never formalize their intent. Closing this conversion gap — through improved DMV registration processes, workplace campaigns, and culturally targeted outreach — remains one of the most achievable near-term opportunities to expand the kidney donor pool in America in 2026 without requiring any change in medical practice whatsoever.
Disclaimer: The data reports published on The Global Files are sourced from publicly available materials considered reliable. While efforts are made to ensure accuracy, no guarantees are provided regarding completeness or reliability. The Global Files is not liable for any errors, omissions, or damages resulting from the use of these reports.