How Many Get a BBL [Statistics, Trends, Risks]

Brazilian Butt Lifts has the highest mortality rates of any other cosmetic surgery.

This article presents the findings of the largest meta-study of the popular and trending BBL plastic surgery procedure to date. The dataset looks at outcome variables from several hundred thousand procedures.

From this, we can confidently extrapolate the death rate and other dangers involved in a BBL, as well as uncover a multitude of other facts.

Table of contents:

• How Many Get a BBL?
• Death Rate
• Trending
• Cost of a BBL surgery
• Number of women who had a BBL (worldwide)
• Industry insights
• Why Are They Dangerous?

Key Takeaways

• +1 M Brazilian Butt Lifts were done (increased by 650% in the past 10 years).
• Up to 455 people have died from BBL surgery.
• 1 in 250 women in the US have had a BBL.
• 11% of all cosmetic procedures are Brazilian Butt Lifts.
• 1 in every 2300 BBLs results in the death of the patient due to complications related to the surgery.
• BBLs are x30 times more dangerous (mortality rate) than breast augmentations.
• In the US, $2.8B worth of revenue is generated from BBL surgeries each year.

How Many Get a BBL?

• More than 1M Brazilian Butt Lift surgical procedures were done in 2022.

• 11% of all cosmetic procedures are Brazilian Butt Lifts.
• BBLs are the 4th most popular surgical cosmetic procedure, after Breast augmentation, Liposuction, and Eyelid surgery.
• The number of BBLs performed annually has increased by 650% in the past 10 years. From 138,321 performed in 2012 to more than 1M BBLs performed annually in 2022.
• The number of BBL surgeries has increased +40% every year, for the past 10 years.

The growth can be seen in the dataset spanning back the past 11 years:

Compared to other surgical cosmetic procedures

Compared to other cosmetic procedures, an augmentation of the buttock is the 4th most popular.

The top 10 most popular cosmetic surgeries are (with % of all types being this)

Death Rate

The estimated mortality rate of complications during or following a BBL procedure has been put between 1:2,351 and 1:6,241. In other words, 0.043% to 0.016% die from having a Brazilian Butt Lift.

Although it might sound like a relatively small number it is very high in the world of cosmetic surgery. Comparatively, only 1:72,000 (0.0014%) die from breast augmentations.

In other words:

• You are up to 30 times more likely to die from a BBL surgery compared to a breast implant surgery.

It becomes even more scary when you calculate how many have died from a BBL surgery in 2022:

• It is estimated that between 172-455 people will die from BBL surgery in 2022.

Trending (growth in the number of BBLs performed annually)

• The number of BBL surgeries has increased by +40% year-over-year in the past 10 years.

However, a large part of the growth is driven by a general increase in surgical cosmetic surgeries!

The growth of all types of cosmetic surgeries is +9% year-over-year in the past 10 years.

Therefore, if we isolate the growth of BBLs comparatively to other types of cosmetic surgeries, we find that:

• Accounting for the general growth in the cosmetic surgery industry (+9% YoY) the number of BBL surgeries has increased by +31% annually.

Google search trends and Social Media

A large part of the growth is driven by an overwhelming increase in online interest, search, and social media exposure.

This becomes visible when looking at Google searches for “BBL” over time:

Interest in BBL surgery, State-by-State

The top 5 US states with the most interest in BBL surgery are:

1. Florida
2. Nevada
3. Louisiana
4. Texas
5. Maryland

Cost of a BBL surgery

• The average cost of a BBL in the world is anywhere between $4,800 and $6,500.
• The average cost of a BBL surgery in America is $7,231.
  • The cheapest price found was $3,048 and the most expensive was $15,215.

But we wanted a closer estimate of the price in America. So we sourced all the prices from all available Cosmec surgical companies in the biggest US cities. Then we listed the lowest and highest prices. We also summarized and calculated the average price across all the companies.

There were also some other findings from this dataset:

• On average Memphis is the cheapest city to get a BBL (the average cost being $5,476 across all surgeons).
• On Average Baltimore is the most expensive city to get a BBL in (the average cost being $10,174 across all surgeons).
• The overall cheapest BBL surgery company is located in San Diego (and costs only $3,048).

Compared to a Butt implant, the BBL is cheaper. A butt implant will set you back $5,280 while a BBL procedure on average costs $4,800.

The drop in cost

Some speculate that the price of getting a BBL has significantly dropped in recent years. This is likely true (however, no data exists, and we were not able to collect it).

However, a few arguments point to why the price would have dropped.

Since the invention of the BBL surgery in 1969 the procedure has grown in popularity.

As a surgical procedure grows in popularity several things happen:

• The procedure becomes more refined (cost of equipment drops).
• More surgeons specialize in the treatment – the cost of human work goes down as:
  • Less preparation time is required.
  • Higher demand naturally lowers prices amongst market participants (surgeons).
• A growing trend is traveling to Mexico or other countries with cheaper pricing making American surgeons more willing to compromise on their margins of each procedure (lowering the cost).

Number of women who had a BBL (Worldwide)

Due to non-historic data pre-2011 being available it is hard to estimate the exact number of women who have ever had a BBL surgery (red. any people, but a large majority of procedures are on women).

It is estimated that at least +5 million women worldwide have had a BBL surgery.

We can also roughly estimate that between 750,000 to 1 million American women have had BBL surgery.

That is 0.4% to 0.6% of all American women. 1 in 250 women in the US have had a BBL.

Industry insights: Revenue generated from Brazilian Butt Lifts

• Worldwide the BBL industry is worth $6.5B.
• In the US, $2.8B worth of revenue is generated from BBL surgeries each year.

Why Are They Dangerous?

BBL procedures can cause a lot of complications for patients.

Some of them we have listed below:

1. Infection: Any surgery, including BBL, carries a risk of infection. The surgical site can become infected, leading to complications and potentially life-threatening conditions.
2. Blood clots: After surgery, there is a risk of developing blood clots in the legs, which can travel to the lungs and cause pulmonary embolism, a life-threatening condition.
3. Fat embolism: Fat embolism is a rare but serious complication of BBL. When fat is injected into the buttocks, it can enter the bloodstream and travel to the lungs or brain, leading to respiratory or neurological problems.
4. Skin necrosis: Skin necrosis is a condition where the skin in the treated area dies, leading to open wounds and scarring.
5. Anesthesia complications: BBL is usually performed under general anesthesia, which carries risks such as allergic reactions, breathing problems, and blood pressure changes.
6. Asymmetry: BBL can result in asymmetry or unevenness between the two buttocks, requiring additional surgery to correct.
7. Nerve damage: There is a risk of nerve damage during BBL, which can result in numbness or decreased sensation in the buttocks.
8. Poor healing: Some patients may experience poor healing after BBL, which can lead to open wounds, scarring, and other complications.

Some simply indicate poor results, such as numbers 6 or 8. However, others can prove fatal (and have already been fatal for a lot of people).