While the number of organ transplants in the United States grew by about 40 percent from 1996 to 2005, the worsening imbalance between supply and demand for organs fueled a near doubling of the waitlist for organs during that time. The annual report from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients found that there were about 90,000 people registered on organ waiting lists at the end of 2005, a 90 percent increase over the number of people waiting for an organ at the end 1996. The waiting time for kidneys, livers and pancreata increased, but the waiting time for lungs and heart decreased because increasing supply more than offset the growth in demand. Below are tables showing both transplant activity and waiting list changes year to year.


TRANSPLANTS AND ORGAN WAITING LIST 1996 TO 2005