The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) has published the results of their biennial survey of hair restoration physicians from around the world. The survey — published in the November/December 2011 issue of Hair Transplant Forum International — asked members of the ISHRS to answer questions on patient demographics, surgical techniques, number of procedures, and more in order to gauge the state of the industry.

Here are some key findings:

Procedures:

• The economy is still sluggish, but demand for hair restoration is stronger than ever.
• Extrapolated worldwide, the number of hair restoration procedures in 2010 was approximately 279,381; up 11% from 2008; and up 66% compared to 2004.
• There were 923,599 total hair restoration patients worldwide in 2010 (a 14% increase from 2008).
• 251,208 were surgical patients and 672,391 non-surgical.
• Compared to 2004, the combined total of surgical and non-surgical patients has increased 156%.

Gender:

• Proportion of male surgical patients to female patients was nearly unchanged from 2008 (males were 85.9% of patients while female patients made up 14.1% of the total).
• Proportion of male non-surgical patients to female non-surgical patients was also nearly unchanged from 2008 (male patients made up 65.2% of the total, while females were 34.8%).

Age:

• More than half of both male and female patients fell between the ages of 30 to 49 years old.
• The average age of a physician’s youngest patient in 2010 was 22 years old.
• The average age of a physician’s oldest patient in 2010 was 65 years old.

Worldwide:

• Every country or region, except Australia, grew in volume of surgeries.
• The country or region with the most procedures was the U.S.A. (with 101,252 surgeries, an increase of 3% from 2008).
• Asia was second with 92,075 procedures (an increase of 17% from 2008).

Non-scalp Procedures:

• Non-scalp procedures were relatively constant in 2010 compared to 2008.
• 92.8% of procedures were scalp procedures.
• 4.4% were eyebrow procedures.
• Eyelash, eyebrow, and facial procedures were up 14.2% in 2010 from 2008.
• In the U.S.A. facial hair restoration procedures nearly doubled in 2010 from 2008.

Read more on our hair transplant statistics page.