Does Utah have one of the highest rates of cosmetic surgery in the country?

Possibly. It's difficult to say because statistics for plastic surgery procedures are only collected by region, not by state.[1] However, there are several available statistical data sources for plastic surgery procedures in Utah of varying quality.[2] Two of them indicate that that Latter-day Saint women in Utah have less cosmetic surgery than the national average, whereas another indicates that Latter-day Saints have over 3 times as much.[3]

So what about the 2024 research brief published by the Utah Women & Leadership Project and BYU that showed that Latter-day Saint women have a lot more cosmetic surgery than the average?

Six days after the publication of the research brief, the co-author of the paper, Lauren A. Barnes[BIO] acknowledged that when looking at more recent data, Latter-day Saints appear to "about even" with the national average instead of the 3 times greater rate that the UWLP paper indicated.[4]

Why are there so many articles published that say that Utah has one of the highest rates in the country?

Probably because in 2007 Forbes wrote an article titled "America's Vainest Cities"[5] where it ranked Salt Lake City as #1. This placement was not based on the number of cosmetic surgeries, but instead, the number of plastic surgeons per capita.[6] The University of Utah School of Medicine (in Salt Lake City) has a residency program for plastic and reconstructive surgery,[7] and Forbes acknowledged that this may be a factor that skews the data.[8]

Since Forbes published this article, there have been many articles on this subject,[9] and many of them reference the 2007 Forbes article.[10]

So does Salt Lake City have the highest number of plastic surgeons in the country?

No. Data from 2018, shows that Salt Lake City has the fifth-highest number of plastic surgeons per capita in the country.[11]

But that's still high. Couldn't it be because there is a high demand for cosmetic surgery in Utah?

Possibly. But there are many potential reasons for a high number of plastic surgeons in Utah. The Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City performs over 3,000 surgeries per year.[12] The University of Utah has residency programs for both plastic and reconstructive surgery.[13] Or maybe people in Utah are more interested in cosmetic surgery than in other states.[14] There is no data available that points to one explanation.

Is "breast augmentation" a popular search term for Utah?

Yes. As of May 2021, Google Trends indicates that Utah is #1 for the search topic "breast augmentation," as well as #1 in the search term "boob job" over the last 5 years.[15] However, it also indicates that for the "breast enlargement" search category, Utah is #37 over the last five years.[16]

There are lots of ways to look at the data on Google Trends (time span, geographic span, terms versus categories, etc.), depending on what kind of narrative someone is supporting. But overall, it seems there is a disproportionate amount of interest in cosmetic surgery related to breasts in Utah.

What does the Church teach about cosmetic surgery?

The Church does not have any official policies related to cosmetic surgery,[17] but two modern apostles have cautioned against it, in the context of condemning vanity.[18]

Doesn't Utah spend way more on cosmetics though?

Possibly. The Forbes article mentions that Utah residents spent more at grocery stores on cosmetics purchases.[19] However, there isn't available data including department or chain cosmetic stores.