100,000 Americans Await Kidney Transplant
As National Kidney Month begins, non-profit Kidneys for Communities is highlighting that over 100,000 Americans are currently on the waiting list for a kidney. The group is intensifying its campaign for living donors to address the persistent organ shortage.
The wait for a deceased donor kidney in the United States is typically three to five years, though it can extend up to 10 years in some areas. Tragically, 11 to 16 people die each day while waiting for a transplant. A new person is added to the national organ transplant waiting list every 8 minutes. Kidneys are the most in-demand organ, with over 80% of people on the transplant list waiting for a kidney. In 2023, while 44,560 new candidates were added to the kidney waiting list, only 27,332 transplants were performed. The wait time for a kidney can be influenced by several factors, including blood type, geographic location, and sensitization status. For instance, patients with blood type O or B often face a longer wait. To increase their chances, some candidates register at multiple transplant centers, a practice known as multiple listing. Transplants from living donors offer a significant advantage, often lasting two to three times longer than those from deceased donors. Finding a living donor can dramatically shorten the wait time, with programs like the National Kidney Registry facilitating transplants for 80% of its paired exchange patients in under 90 days. Chronic kidney disease, a leading cause of death in the U.S., affects nearly 15% of adults and can lead to kidney failure. For these individuals, a transplant is often the best long-term treatment option compared to dialysis, which requires patients to be connected to a machine for several hours, multiple days a week. Efforts are underway to address the organ shortage. The Increasing Organ Transplant Access (IOTA) Model, which took effect in mid-2025, is a six-year program designed to study how financial incentives for transplant hospitals could increase the number of kidney transplants and improve patient care. Despite broad support for organ donation, with over 95% of people in favor, fewer than 60% are registered donors. Furthermore, only a small fraction of deaths, about 3 in 1,000, occur in a way that allows for organ donation, highlighting the critical need for more registered living and deceased donors.
