--- title: Organ Transplants Hit New High in 2015 description: Up 5% from the year before canonical: https://time.com/4179648/organ-transplants-record/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-13T20:54:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:06:22.664Z article:section: Health og:title: Record 30,000 Organ Transplants Performed in U.S. Last Year og:description: Up 5% from the year before og:url: https://time.com/4179648/organ-transplants-record/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf69010de7ce1917b/698878fabc6cfc067c3db3ad/surgery.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5616 og:image:height: 3159 og:image:alt: 470454993 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Record 30,000 Organ Transplants Performed in U.S. Last Year twitter:description: Up 5% from the year before twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf69010de7ce1917b/698878fabc6cfc067c3db3ad/surgery.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Record 30,000 Organ Transplants Performed in U.S. Last Year > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=8c649164-ad1b-40f3-8f62-97074e6a9b16&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jan 13, 2016 8:54 PM UTC  surgery instruments surgery instruments Getty Images  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jan 13, 2016 8:54 PM UTC U.S. organ transplants [surpassed the 30,000 milestone](http://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/) in 2015 because Americans are increasingly willing to donate their organs, health officials said. Doctors performed a record 30,973 transplants of kidneys, livers and other organs last year, 5% more than in 2014, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), a wing of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that tracks such medical donations. The number of [organ donations](http://time.com/3644215/history-kidney-transplant/) has been on a steady incline for the last decade. But the number of people waiting for organs—currently 121,700 patients—still far outnumbers the number of people willing to donate. The network estimates that 22 people in the country die every day waiting for organs. **MORE:** [How the First Successful Kidney Transplant Happened](http://time.com/3644215/history-kidney-transplant/) OPTN’s transplant data shows that the number of African-American and Hispanic recipients increased last year, an important step to the organization because those two groups are over-represented on waiting lists. 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