Percentage of women in Australia with Breast Implants :- Maximum of 4% of female population 18+

Was watching "I'm a Celebrity, get me out of me", and one of the women there (reality TV star from "The Bachelor", Laurina Fleure) mentioned that she believes 70% of women in Australia have Breast Implants. Big call. She might just be saying that as she has them, but even so 7 in 10!


Anyway, being a stats man, and interested in breasts, I was wondering if this is true so started to investigate.


There are no statistics for Breast Augmentation surgery in Australia, so the best we can go on is an international survey by the name of the


"ISAPS International Survey on Aesthetic/Cosmetic stats for 2014"


Using these stats, I was able to calculate the average number of Breast Augmentations done per plastic surgeon in the top 10 countries performing the surgery (which is approximately 74 per year)


As Australia has 317 Plastic surgeons, that means there are approx. 23,400 Breast Augmentations done in 2014 in Australia.


Now as Breast Augmentation is a fairly mature procedure, we need to work out the growth per year to see if we can count back the numbers of procedures performed in the years prior.


Using US surgery stats, in 1997 there were 101,176 Breast Augmentations performed, vs 286,694 in 2014. That means an average growth rate of 6.3% a year.


If we assume that same rate for Australia, and extend it to 2015 and back all the way to 1980, it means that in we have the following amount of procedures performed.

Year	Number of Procedures
2015	24940.16267
2014	23458
2013	22063.9204
2012	20752.68921
2011	19519.38284
2010	18359.37034
2009	17268.29592
2008	16242.06269
2007	15276.81722
2006	14368.93508
2005	13515.00724
2004	12711.82727
2003	11956.37927
2002	11245.82661
2001	10577.5012
2000	9948.89353
1999	9357.643231
1998	8801.530198
1997	8278.466267
1996	7786.487371
1995	7323.746166
1994	6888.505092
1993	6479.12985
1992	6094.083267
1991	5731.91952
1990	5391.278713
1989	5070.881762
1988	4769.525601
1987	4486.07866
1986	4219.476617
1985	3968.718399
1984	3732.862428
1983	3511.023083
1982	3302.367373
1981	3106.11181
1980	2921.51947
Total	373426

So that total of 373,426 is the amount of women who have had Breast Augmentation surgery between 2015 and 1980. Could be double counting if women have had multiple surgeries, but will do for now.


Last thing to do is to calculate female population of Australia over 18 (assuming that breast surgery is only done on the over 18's) which is 9,351,280 (ABS 2015 figures)


Based on those stats, the estimated percentage of adult women who have breast Implants are 3.99% or basically 4% 


This is close to the same rate as the US, so I would say it is fairly accurate. So not quite 70% Laurina!