Global Popularity of Cosmetic Surgical and Non-surgical Procedures

You no doubt already know about the popularity of cosmetic procedures to improve the appearance of the body’s various features. Whether it is breast augmentation, facelift, Botox injections, or liposuction, cosmetic procedures constitute a multi-billion dollar annual industry just in the United States. Furthermore, the number of people in the United States opting to undergo cosmetic procedures also seems to increase year after year. But how does this popularity in the United States stack up against the rest of the world? In 2014, the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) released one of the first large surveys of its 40,000 international surgeon members. The statistics outlined below provide more of a global perspective as to the ongoing popularity of cosmetic surgical and non-surgical procedures.

Global Totals

In 2014, more than 20 million cosmetic procedures were performed around the world, of which approximately 10.5 million were non-surgical and the remaining 9.5 million were surgical. Most of these procedures were performed on the head or the face, totaling more than 4 million. As expected, most of these head and facial procedures were non-surgical, such as Botox or dermal fillers (almost 5 million and more than 2.5 million, respectively). However, eyelid surgery was the most popular surgical procedure performed on the face or head (more than 1.5 million).

Global Costs

Just in terms of products used for these procedures (such as breast implants or dermal filler material), patients shelled out more than $24 billion in that same year. Obviously, this dollar amount does not include fees for surgeon, outpatient surgery center or hospital, or anesthesiologist fees. This represented a strong growth in the global cosmetic procedure market of approximately 8%. To put things in perspective, patients in the United States accounted for approximately half of the money spent on cosmetic procedures in 2014, forking over almost $13 billion.

Women versus Men

In terms of gender, women far outnumbered men for both surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures worldwide. Women underwent approximately 17.5 cosmetic procedures in 2014 (86% of total), while men only underwent approximately 2.5 million (14% of total). Women also underwent more surgical (more than 8.2 million versus almost 1.4 million) and non-surgical (more than 9.2 million versus almost 1.4 million) procedures than men.

Surgical procedures: The five most popular surgical procedures for women were: Breast augmentation (more than 1.3 million), liposuction (almost 1.2 million), eyelid surgery (more than 1 million), fat grafting (more than 800,000), and tummy tuck (more than 636,000). The most popular procedures for men were: Eyelid surgery (more than 295,000), rhinoplasty (more than 234,000), liposuction (more than 175,000), gynecomastia (enlarged male breasts) (172,000), and fat grafting (more than 156,000).

Non-surgical procedures: The five most popular non-surgical procedures for women were: Botox injections (more than 4 million), hyaluronic acid, a type of dermal filler (more than 2 million), hair removal (more than 1 million), chemical peel (more than 450,000), and laser skin resurfacing (more than 400,000). The most popular procedures for men were: Botox injections (more than 640,000), hyaluronic acid (almost 300,000), hair removal (more than 222,000), laser skin resurfacing (almost 63,000), and microdermabrasion (more than 48,000).

In looking at these stats, it appears that the same trend we are seeing in the United States is true through much of the rest of the world. Cosmetic procedures are steadily gaining popularity and are expected to continue to rise over time.