2023 Sets Record: Over 46,000 Organ Transplants in the United States

Here's a number that should make you feel hopeful and furious at the same time. The United States set a new record in 2023, performing over 46,000 organ transplants — continuing a sustained trend of year-over-year growth in both deceased and living donor transplants. That's incredible progress. And yet, over 100,000 people are still on the waitlist. 17 people still die every day. We're breaking records while the fundamental problem stays unsolved. That tells me this is a policy problem, not a generosity problem.

By the Numbers

Key statistics from 2023 include:

46,632 transplants — up from approximately 42,900 in 2022, a roughly 9% increase.

16,000+ deceased donors — a new record for the number of people who donated organs after death.

6,900+ living donors — also a record, driven largely by kidney and liver donations.

Kidney transplants remained the most common, accounting for over 27,000 procedures. Liver transplants exceeded 10,000 for the first time.

Each new transplant record is bittersweet: it means more lives saved, but also underscores that the fundamental shortage remains unsolved as long as more than 100,000 people remain on the waitlist.

What's Driving the Growth

Several factors contributed to the record year. Increased use of organs from hepatitis C-positive donors (which can now be treated in recipients) expanded the donor pool. More hospitals adopted normothermic machine perfusion to preserve and assess organs. Living donor kidney exchanges (paired donation programs) continued to grow. And public awareness campaigns, including social media efforts, helped drive donor registrations.

The Persistent Gap

Despite the records, the gap between supply and demand persists. Over 103,000 people were on the waiting list at the end of 2023. Roughly 6,000 died waiting during the year. The waitlist for kidneys alone exceeded 88,000. Racial disparities also continued: Black patients made up a disproportionate share of the kidney waiting list and waited significantly longer for transplants on average. After a family member needed a kidney transplant, numbers like these stopped being abstract for me. Every one of those 6,000 was someone's family.

The goal for organ donation advocates is clear: keep breaking transplant records until the waiting list itself is eliminated.

Policy Is the Missing Piece

I believe the record numbers prove something important: Americans are willing to donate. The bottleneck is not generosity — it's the system. An opt-out policy would capture the intentions of the millions who support donation but never get around to registering. Changing the default saves lives. Combined with the OPTN reforms now underway, we at YCOD are pushing to close the gap between supply and demand through Bill A07954. I couldn't stay on the sidelines watching records get broken while people still die waiting.