These top 5 countries have the most plastic surgery procedures

There’s no denying that the last few years have seen a steady rise in plastic surgery procedures and it seems it’s very much becoming the norm. With the continual advancement in technologies and techniques, more and more people are becoming open to the idea.

According to a recent report from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (ISAPS), more than 9 million surgical procedures were performed in 2016. The report highlighted the most common procedures requested in 2016, as well as where in the world these procedures took place.

Here’s the list!

1. United States (17.9% of surgeries)
2. Brazil (10.7%)
3. Japan (4.8%)
4. Italy (4.1%)
5. Mexico (3.9%)

Taking the number one spot, the US had more than 4 million total procedures in 2016 making it the busiest scene for plastic surgery. Brazil was the country with the second-highest number of procedures performed, with 2.5 million procedures.

While the percentage covers all plastic surgeries, it seems there are some obvious trends which differ dramatically throughout regions. For example, the US took the top spot in the surgical breast procedures (19% of the global total), and second place behind Brazil for the body category, which includes treatments such as liposuction, abdominoplasty and butt augmentation.

Meanwhile, Japan’s most popular cosmetic procedure is eyelid surgery, a very common practice among modern East Asian culture. In fact, eyelid surgery was one of the most popular procedures for almost every, if not all, countries.

So where does Australia fit in? In terms of total procedures, we came in at 18th in the world, while landing in at 14th for the total breast procedures, representing around 1% of the total surgeries tabled in the ISAPS report. While this may not sound like the lion’s share, consider the fact that Australia only represents 0.33% of the world’s total population!

The ISAPS report also showed which procedures are becoming more popular. Looking just at surgical procedures, the top three biggest increases come from upper body lifts (a 26% increase between 2015 and 2016), lower body lifts (29%), and labiaplasty (a whopping 45% increase). The sharpest decrease comes in the category of penile enlargement, which fell 28%.

Overall the findings show that plastic surgery continues a very healthy stronghold around the world with no signs of slowing down.