Salt Lake City Leads Nation in Breast Implant Popularity
Makenzie on 5 Apr 2011 at 12:00am
Salt Lake City has the highest interest in breast implants in the nation, according to new RealSelf data. Columbia, South Carolina has the least.
Surprised by the women of Salt Lake City? So were we. Enhanced breasts seem unusual in a conservative city that can pack an arena to watch "clean comics" do standup.
To measure the interest in breast implants, and other cosmetic procedures, our team looked at millions of searches on RealSelf.com by geographic location. This reveals what's trending and trailing for every major city and region.
The top 5 cities interested in breast implants are:
- Salt Lake City (+74% vs. National Average)
- Fresno, CA (+63%)
- Honolulu, HI (+54%)
- Oklahoma City (+50%)
- Mobile, AL (+34%)
Where are women less interested in bust enhancement? Much of the East shows fewer searches for breast implants. Led by Columbia, South Carolina (-42% vs. National Average), Westchester/Fairfield Counties (-35%), Baltimore (-30%), Boston (-27%) and Washington, DC (-26%).
Related Posts and Information on RealSelf:
Salt Lake City Women Rate Breast Implants
Just came across this really fascinating read which interviews a handful of plastic surgery patients in Utah. They talk all about why the culture there drives so many to seek breast implants and other procedures.
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=19769678&nid=1010
Fair enough. That was our working assumption, anecdotally supported by the fact we've seen considerable posting of stories by SLC women who've undergone procedures like breast augmentation.
1) There are a lot of plastic surgeons in Utah.
Forbes magazine (November 2007), ranked Salt Lake City America's vainest city, having 6 plastic surgeons per 100,000. This is the highest in America. Given the Mormon religion's influence on the state of Utah as a whole, it is surprising to people that there is so much plastic surgery in Utah.
2) There are more pregnancies in Utah than anywhere else, and many of these women have babies at a young age.
The change in breast size and shape after pregnancy is often a factor that would influence a young woman's decision about breast augmentation. The birth rate in Utah is higher than any other state with a remarkable 20.8 births per 1,000 total population (2007 NCHS). The next closest was Idaho with a birth rate of 16.7. Interestingly, I also see a lot of patients who travel from Idaho to Utah for breast augmentation surgery.
Another contributing factor is the age at which women are done having their children and ready for a breast augmentation. Younger women are more apt to desire breast augmentation as they are still young and would like to have youthful bodies. The average age of first pregnancy in Utah is 23.9 compared to the national average of 25.0 (NCHS 2009).
The population as a whole is young in Utah. Utah has the youngest average age in the nation with a median age of 28, compared to the national average of 36.7 (American Community Survey 2004).
3) Breast augmentation is very socially acceptable.
A fairly prominent portion of the population in Utah is Mormon. Neighborhoods go to church together. The women get to know each other very well and often talk freely about these kinds of issues.
Thank you for the great response!
The first reason would be a high pregnancy rate for the state. Most of my patients have had several children and at a younger age than in other locations where I've practiced. Consequently, women are still in their "younger" years upon completing childbearing, and remain concerned about correcting some of the changes that resulted from pregnancy.
A second plausible explanation is that women in Utah lead an active lifestyle. We have four great seasons and lovely places to recreate. A thinner, fitter populace tends to have less breast fullness. This can complicate clothing choices and make fitting into swimsuits and the use of padded bras more of a reality. Frustration on the part of these ladies also likely drives this interest.
And lastly, I have to proudly admit that there are some darn fine surgeons here that put in a lot of implants. Knowing that excellent and experienced implant surgeons are available also stimulates our prospective patients to inquire about surgery.
I'm sure that there are some other factors that I haven't considered. It will be educational to see what reason others speculate as to the motivations for this level of interest.
Wow, great answer! Thanks for responding.
The high birth rate was brought up by a SLC blogger as well. It's always interesting to look at why certain procedures are popular in specific areas.
Wanted to offer some background on the data source here, and how the RealSelf Interest Index is calculated.
For those not familiar with us, by being the most visited site in aesthetics, RealSelf provides a comprehensive view into the global interest in elective cosmetic procedures.
We calculated the index by looking at our search data from millions of consumers that visited in the past quarter. We look at total searches for a topic, and then create an expected search volume for each geographic location. We then evaluate actual searches by topic and by location of the site visitor. The comparison of expected vs. actual searches, thus, serves as way to see positive or negative variances with the average.
The Interest Index is forward looking and reflects what’s popular now, and which treatments may be elected in the future. It does not represent the volume of actual procedures performed or total search volumes. If you were to look at the data from this perspective, the most populous cities would appear at the top of every list.