Record number of organ transplants carried out in Belgium in 2025

A record 1,093 organ transplants were carried out in Belgium in 2025, the highest number ever recorded. The figures were released on Thursday by Belgian Red Cross-Flanders and Eurotransplant.

Around half of the transplants took place in Flanders, with the rest carried out in Brussels and Wallonia. In Flanders alone, 545 procedures were performed. The most common transplants were kidneys (199), followed by livers (139), lungs (83) and hearts (51). In some cases, patients received more than one organ.

An organ transplant replaces a failing or diseased organ with a healthy one from a donor. Donors may be deceased or living. For many patients, a transplant is life-saving.

Belgium works with seven other European countries through Eurotransplant to match donated organs with patients. The network coordinates the exchange and allocation of organs between Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia.

Before a transplant can go ahead, doctors must check that the blood group and tissue type of the donor and patient are compatible. Belgian Red Cross-Flanders carries out tissue typing for all organs transplanted in Flanders. Once compatibility is confirmed, Eurotransplant decides which patient on the waiting list is the best match.

The number of kidney transplants from living donors in Flanders has risen again. There were 31 such donations in 2023, increasing to 48 in 2024 and 52 in 2025.

On 31 December 2025, 1,463 people in Belgium were on the waiting list for a new organ, including 702 in Flanders. That figure is similar to previous years.

^{A patient undergoes a kidney transplantation © Handout / Northwestern Medicine / AFP}