In 2025 Spain retained its international lead in organ donation from deceased donors, accounting for 23% of donors in the European Union and 5% of those recorded worldwide. The country also ranked first for kidney transplants, with 4,000, and lung transplants, with 556, according to the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation, run by the National Transplant Organisation (ONT) as a WHO collaborating centre.
Spain stood out above all in donation after circulatory death, that is, after death from cardiorespiratory arrest. With 1,416 donors of this kind, the country contributed 48% of the European Union total and 10% of the world total, and was the only one to perform intestinal transplants from these donors, four in all.
Globally, 183,896 organ transplants were carried out in 2025, 4% more than the previous year and an all-time high. Spain’s rate of transplants using organs from donors after circulatory death reached 63.5 per million inhabitants, ahead of the United States (46.7) and Belgium (39.7).
