Vasectomy Statistics: How Many Men, How Often, Trends

Roughly 500,000 vasectomies are performed in the United States each year. That number has held steady for most of the last decade, with a measurable bump after June 2022. The average vasectomy patient is in his mid-to-late thirties, married or partnered, and already has children. Vasectomy is still less common than tubal ligation in the US as a form of permanent contraception, even though it is safer, cheaper, and easier to recover from. Here’s the sourced data on volume, demographics, age, and what changed over the last ten years.

The short version

• About 500,000 vasectomies per year in the US, per CDC National Survey of Family Growth and procedure-billing data.
• Globally, an estimated 33 million to 50 million men rely on vasectomy as their primary form of contraception, per UN Population Division data and World Health Organization estimates.
• Average age at vasectomy in the US is 35 to 38, with the largest share between 30 and 40.
• Tubal ligation is still roughly twice as common as vasectomy among US couples, despite vasectomy being the lower-risk procedure.
• Vasectomy requests and consultations rose sharply after the June 2022 Dobbs decision, particularly in states with new abortion restrictions. The annual procedure rate has continued to drift upward since.

How many vasectomies per year in the US?

The most-cited figure is around 500,000 procedures per year, drawn from a combination of CDC National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) data and procedure-billing analyses. The CDC NSFG tracks contraceptive use among adults aged 15 to 49, and vasectomy prevalence has hovered between 5% and 6% of married men in that age range across recent survey cycles.

Estimates vary depending on data source. NSFG self-report data tends to undercount procedures performed in office settings without insurance claims (cash-pay and direct-pay clinics). Industry estimates and urology practice surveys generally land in the 450,000 to 550,000 range per year, which is why 500,000 is the working number you’ll see cited in news coverage and AUA documents.

For context, that’s roughly one vasectomy for every seven births in the US in any given year. It’s also about half the number of tubal ligations performed annually, despite vasectomy being a much smaller procedure.

Who is getting a vasectomy?

The typical US vasectomy patient profile, drawn from urology billing data and NSFG surveys:

The median number of biological children at the time of vasectomy is two. Childless men account for a small but growing share of vasectomy patients, roughly 5% to 10% in recent surveys, with the rate higher among urologists who market specifically to that audience.

The under-30 share is small, generally below 10% of all vasectomies, but it has been climbing. The AUA Vasectomy Guideline does not set an age minimum. Younger men report higher regret rates after the fact, which is covered in detail in our vasectomy young age regret article, but the absolute numbers remain low.

Vasectomy trends 2015 to 2026

The annual procedure count was largely flat from 2015 through early 2022, hovering in the 450,000 to 500,000 range. Two inflection points moved the trend line:

1. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Office-based vasectomies dropped sharply during the spring 2020 shutdowns, then rebounded by the end of the year. Net effect: a temporary dip with no lasting trend impact.
2. The June 2022 Dobbs decision. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade and triggered state-level abortion restrictions. Urology practices across the US reported large spikes in consultation requests in the weeks and months that followed. Several published analyses, including a JAMA Health Forum study (2024) of insurance claims data, showed a measurable national increase in vasectomy procedures from Q3 2022 through 2023.

The post-Dobbs spike was not uniform across the country. States with new abortion restrictions saw the largest jumps. States with broader reproductive access also saw increases, but smaller ones. The full breakdown is in our post-Dobbs vasectomy surge article.

After 2023, the annual rate appears to have leveled off at a new baseline somewhere in the 525,000 to 575,000 range, though the most recent year-over-year data is still being collected and revised.

Vasectomy vs tubal ligation: who picks which?

This is the gap that surprises most people who look at the data. In the US, tubal ligation (female sterilization) is performed about twice as often as vasectomy, despite vasectomy being:

• Less invasive (no general anesthesia, no abdominal surgery)
• Lower complication rate
• Lower failure rate over the long term, per AUA guideline and ACOG comparisons
• Cheaper by an order of magnitude in most markets
• Faster recovery (days vs weeks)

ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) and the AUA both note this imbalance in their patient-counseling materials. Possible explanations cited in the literature include lower awareness of vasectomy as an option, social and cultural framing of contraception as a female responsibility, and uneven insurance coverage. Tubal ligation is covered at no cost under the ACA contraceptive mandate; vasectomy is not federally mandated, though many private plans cover it.

The numbers shift if you look at other high-income countries. In the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, vasectomy historically outpaces tubal ligation. The US is an outlier among peer countries on this measure.

Global vasectomy use

Worldwide, an estimated 33 million to 50 million men rely on vasectomy as their primary form of contraception. The UN Population Division World Contraceptive Use database tracks this in five-year intervals.

Highest-prevalence countries (share of partnered women whose partner has had a vasectomy):

Many of the countries with the highest vasectomy uptake also have robust nationalized health systems with low-friction access. That correlation does not prove causation, but it is consistent with the access-and-awareness explanation for the US gap.

What this means for an individual decision

Statistics describe the population, not your situation. The reason most articles include data is to ground the procedure in context. About half a million men make this decision every year in the US. The complication profile is well-characterized. The reversal options exist, with limits. The regret rate is low but not zero. None of that tells you whether a vasectomy is right for you. That conversation belongs with your urologist and your partner.

If you are considering a vasectomy, the more relevant numbers are the procedure’s effectiveness (about 1 failure in 2,000 after confirmed sterility, per the AUA Vasectomy Guideline), the recovery timeline (most men back to desk work in 2 to 3 days, full activity in 1 to 2 weeks), and the reversal odds if you change your mind years later (patency rates of 70% to 95%, pregnancy rates 30% to 75%, both depending heavily on years since vasectomy). Those are covered elsewhere in the Recovery Center.

FAQ

How many vasectomies are performed each year worldwide?

Global annual procedure counts are harder to pin down than US numbers because reporting systems vary by country. Estimates from the UN Population Division and WHO data suggest somewhere between 3 million and 5 million vasectomies per year worldwide, with the largest absolute volumes in the US, Canada, the UK, and a handful of other countries with established vasectomy programs.

Is the US vasectomy rate increasing or decreasing?

Increasing, modestly, since 2022. Before Dobbs, the annual rate was essentially flat at around 500,000 per year. Since 2022 it has trended upward, with claims-data analyses showing year-over-year increases in the 10% to 30% range in some states. Whether that trend continues or settles into a new baseline is still being measured.

What percentage of US men have had a vasectomy?

Among married men aged 35 to 44, roughly 13% to 15% have had a vasectomy, per CDC NSFG data. Across all men aged 15 to 49, the rate is closer to 5% to 6%. Both numbers have crept up over the past decade.

At what age do most men get a vasectomy?

The peak age is 35 to 38, with the bulk of procedures performed between 30 and 45. Procedures in men under 30 and over 50 are less common but not rare.

Is vasectomy more common in red states or blue states?

The pre-Dobbs distribution was relatively even across the country, with slightly higher uptake in suburban areas regardless of state. The post-Dobbs spike has been concentrated in states with new abortion restrictions, which has reshaped the regional pattern. Northeast and Pacific states still have the highest baseline uptake in absolute terms.

How does vasectomy compare to other contraceptive methods by usage?

In the US, condoms, the pill, and IUDs lead among reversible methods. Among permanent contraception, tubal ligation outnumbers vasectomy roughly 2 to 1 in absolute terms. Among all forms of contraception used by US couples, vasectomy accounts for roughly 5% to 7% of the total mix, per CDC NSFG.

Has the vasectomy failure rate changed over time?

Not meaningfully. The current AUA-cited failure rate of roughly 1 in 2,000 after confirmed sterility has held since the 2012 guideline. Technique improvements (cautery, fascial interposition) have tightened that number, but it was already low to start with.

Sources

• American Urological Association Vasectomy Guideline (2012, amended 2015). The authoritative US guideline on vasectomy technique, effectiveness, and counseling.
• CDC National Survey of Family Growth. Source for US contraceptive use and vasectomy prevalence data.
• UN Population Division World Contraceptive Use. Global vasectomy uptake by country and year.
• Cleveland Clinic: Vasectomy. Patient-education overview.
• Mayo Clinic: Vasectomy. Procedure and recovery overview.
• JAMA Health Forum: Vasectomy claims trends post-Dobbs (2024). Insurance-claims analysis of US vasectomy volumes before and after the Dobbs decision.

Editorial and informational. Not medical advice. Read the full disclaimer.