Today, the Minister responsible for the Organ and Tissue Authority, The Hon Ged Kearney MP, released the 2024 Australian Donation and Transplantation Activity Report.
The Activity Report provides a measure of progress against the national program for increasing organ and tissue donation for transplantation.
It includes data on organ, eye and tissue donation and transplantation – both deceased and living – to inform ongoing sector improvements.
Assistant Minister Kearney made the announcement at Austin Health alongside Erryn, Andrew and Jessica, who very generously shared how organ and tissue donation has touched all their lives, in vastly different ways.
Erryn and Andrew’s son Harvey became an organ donor in 2023, after tragically dying in a car accident. In a time of immense shock and grief, Erryn and Andrew said yes to organ and tissue donation. Harvey’s gift saved the lives of multiple Australians.
And Jessica, whose life was saved by someone just like Harvey, after an autoimmune disease led to her needing a liver transplant to survive. She is now thriving and is thankful every day that her donor’s family said yes to donation.
We thank all organ and tissue donors, and their families, who said yes to donation in 2024. Their generosity gave Australians in need of a transplant, a second chance at life.
2024 overview in numbers
There was a 3% increase in the number of deceased organ donors (527) compared with 2023, although overall there were fewer organs suitable for transplantation. This resulted in a 5% decrease in the number of transplant recipients (1,328), compared to 2023.
Australia’s rate of donors per million population (dpmp) increased to 19.4 dpmp from 19.3 dpmp in 2023, against a national target of 25 dpmp.
While Australia’s organ and tissue donation activity has increased, our consent rate remains low at 53% for 2024. A return to our pre-COVID consent rate of 60%, would have seen an extra 175 life-saving organ transplants in 2024. This would give hope to the 1,800 people who are on the waitlist for a transplant, and 14,000 more on dialysis, many who may benefit from a transplant.
There were 173,414 new registrations on the Australian Organ Donor Register in 2024, with 36% of the population aged 16 and over registered.
Encouraging more Australians to register and talk to their family about donation has a direct impact on consent rates.
We know families are much more likely to say yes to donation when they’re certain it’s what their family member wanted. In fact, 8 out of 10 families will say yes in these circumstances. This halves when a person isn’t registered, or their family aren’t sure what they wanted.
In 2024, there were 253 living kidney donors, which is equal to 2023.
Of these, 66 kidney transplants were through the Australian and New Zealand Paired Kidney Exchange Program (ANZKX). This is a 20% increase from 2023 (55) and the highest number of living donor transplants through the ANZKX program since its commencement.
Many more people can become eye and tissue donors. Eye and tissue donation can occur for people who die outside a hospital and up to 24 hours after death.
In 2024, there were 1,694 deceased eye donors, up 10% from 1,546 in 2023. There were 2,630 corneal transplants, up 6% from 2,486 in 2023.
Since 2009, more than 33,000 Australians have received a corneal transplant.
There were 311 deceased tissue donors, down 5% from 328 in 2023. Tissues that can be transplanted include heart valves, bone, tendons, ligaments and skin.
There were 3,081 living tissue donors in 2024 resulting in 3,133 living tissue donations, predominantly from patients undergoing hip joint replacement surgery. The number of living tissue donations was 4% higher than 2023 (3,013).
For more information
- Explore stats in Australia for an overview of the latest and most up to date data
- Explore more detailed donation and transplantation data from 2024
- Access any of our previous data reports and find out how we use them.
