Conor Stewart
Research expert covering health & pharmaceuticals in the UK & Europe
Renal health in the United Kingdom (UK) - Statistics & Facts
Kidneys are important to human health as they filter waste products out of the blood circulation. When a person’s kidneys are not operating properly, kidney replacement therapy (RRT) is required and eventually a transplant will be needed. In 2022, it was estimated that there were over 25.3 thousand kidney transplants in Europe. While in the United Kingdom, approximately 70 thousand patients were receiving RRT as of 2021, representing a rate of around 1,300 patients per million population in the UK.
Kidney transplants
In England, there were around five thousand individuals on the kidney transplant list as of March 2023. However, just over two thousand kidney transplants were carried out in England in 2022/23. The primary diagnosis in 19 percent of kidney transplant recipients in the UK in 2021 was diabetes, as the inability for blood sugar to be controlled can damage the kidneys. In the UK, the survival rate is very high for a patient after receiving a kidney. Since 2009, individuals who received a kidney from a living donor had a 99 percent survival rate of living at least one year after the transplant.Kidney cancer
There were approximately 10.2 thousand new cases of kidney cancer diagnosed in England in 2021, while in the same year 1.2 thousand cases were diagnosed in Scotland. In Scotland the mortality rate from kidney cancer was higher among men compared to women. The mortality rate for men was 8.6 deaths per 100,000 population, whereas 5.5 women per 100,000 died from kidney cancer.
