A living donation works differently from most other gifts of its kind: the donor has to be a willing, healthy match, giving up a kidney or part of a liver while still alive. For a long time, that made close relatives the obvious first choice. Canada's transplant data shows a broader circle of giving. Since at least 2015, the typical living donor in these tables has had no biological relationship to the recipient. That category can include spouses, friends, paired-exchange participants and non-directed donors — not only strangers.
Part one — who gives
Unrelated donors already outnumber relatives
Since at least 2015, more of Canada's living organ donors have had no biological relationship to their recipient than have been blood relatives. "Unrelated" donors include altruistic (non-directed) donors and people matched through Canada's living donor paired-exchange program.
Line chart, 2015 to 2024. Unrelated living donors have outnumbered related donors in every year, with counts ranging from 216 to 326 for unrelated donors and 216 to 243 for related donors.
The gap between the two has been as wide as 87 donors (2021) and as narrow as 12 (2020, when the pandemic disrupted living-donor surgery generally) — but unrelated donors have led every single year since 2015.
Part two — who gives, by gender
Women have out-donated men, every year, for a decade
If living donors reflected Canada's population evenly, roughly half would be women. Instead, women have made up between 60% and 64% of all living donors in every single year since 2015 — a gap with no sign of closing.
Line chart, 2015 to 2024, showing the female share of living donors ranging from 59.7 percent to 63.8 percent each year, well above the 50 percent parity line.
Across the decade, 3,145 women and 1,900 men have donated an organ while living — meaning for every man who gave, roughly 1.7 women did the same.
Part three — who gives, by age
The donor pool has aged, modestly
Most living donors are still under 40. But the share aged 60 and older has crept up, while the youngest donors have become slightly less common.
Grouped bar chart comparing age group shares of living donors in 2015 versus 2024. Ages 0 to 39 fell from 33 to 30 percent. Ages 60 and up rose from 14 to 18 percent. Other age groups changed little.
Year-to-year swings are noisy with numbers this small — the direction of this shift is a more reliable takeaway than its exact size.