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Kidney Disease Statistics in Connecticut, USA

Connecticut is home to more than 7,400 residents currently living with kidney failure — a number that has grown by over 23% in the past decade. Thousands more live with chronic kidney disease (CKD), placing them at risk of progression to end-stage renal disease, a condition that is fatal without treatment. Kidney failure demands either lifelong dialysis or a transplant, both of which carry significant medical, financial, and social consequences for patients and their families.

This article draws on multi-year data from state health records, transplant center performance reports, cancer registries, and federal kidney health databases to present a comprehensive picture of kidney disease in Connecticut. It covers the prevalence and incidence of kidney failure, access to dialysis and transplantation, the performance of the state’s two transplant centers, kidney cancer burden by county, kidney disease mortality trends, and the financial hardship associated with these conditions.

The data reveal a state grappling with persistently high disease burden, inadequate transplant access, and worsening mortality trends for kidney disease — even as cancer-related kidney outcomes improve. Understanding these patterns at the statewide and county level is essential for guiding public health priorities, clinical resource allocation, and patient support policy in Connecticut.

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)

Chronic kidney disease is the precursor condition to kidney failure. Its prevalence in the general population reflects the future pipeline of patients at risk of progressing to end-stage renal disease, making CKD surveillance an essential component of kidney health planning.

Adults ever diagnosed with kidney disease (CKD): 3.4%
Connecticut rank among states (lower = less burden): 8th
Medicare patients with CKD diagnosed: 41,980

Connecticut’s 3.4% CKD prevalence rate ranks it 8th among states, suggesting a comparatively lower burden relative to most of the country.

Kidney Failure (End-Stage Renal Disease)

Kidney failure — also called end-stage renal disease (ESRD) — is a condition in which the kidneys can no longer filter waste and fluids adequately to sustain life. Without treatment in the form of dialysis or a transplant, it is fatal. This section covers the scale of kidney failure in Connecticut, how many new cases arise each year, what drives them, and what the resulting mortality burden looks like.

Statewide Prevalence

The following table tracks the total population living with kidney failure in Connecticut across available reporting years, along with the split between those on dialysis and those living with a transplant.

Report Year	Total Living with Kidney Failure	On Dialysis	Living with Transplant
2021	7,031	4,576	2,455
2022	7,253	4,685	2,568
2023	7,212	4,581 (63.5%)	2,631 (36.5%)
2024	7,245	4,559	2,686
2025	7,269	4,496	2,773
2026	7,460	4,547	2,913

The overall kidney failure population in Connecticut has grown steadily, rising from 7,031 in 2021 to 7,460 in 2026.

Annual New Cases

More than 1,000 Connecticut residents are newly diagnosed with kidney failure every year. The list below shows the annual new case counts and the initial treatment pathway for each diagnosed cohort.

Diagnosis Year	New Cases	Received a Transplant	Began Dialysis
2018	1,132	60	1,072
2019	1,174	59	1,115
2020	1,070	43	1,027
2021	1,120	59	1,061
2022	1,131	56	1,075
2023	1,135	66	1,069

New kidney failure diagnoses have remained relatively consistent, ranging from 1,070 to 1,174 per year. Dialysis is overwhelmingly the first treatment for newly diagnosed patients; the number proceeding directly to transplant each year is small, ranging from 43 to 66.

Causes and Risk Factors

Kidney failure in Connecticut is driven predominantly by two chronic, largely preventable conditions. The table below shows reported cause percentages across three consecutive data years.

Cause	2023 Data	2024 Data	2025 Data
Diabetes	47%	44%	43%
High blood pressure	30%	29%	30%
Combined	77%	73%	73%

Connecticut Population-Level Risk Factors

9.6% of Connecticut residents have been diagnosed with diabetes
30.9% have high blood pressure
29.1% self-report as obese

Diabetes and high blood pressure together account for approximately 73–77% of all kidney failure cases in Connecticut.

Kidney Cancer

Kidney and renal pelvis cancer is tracked separately from kidney failure and CKD. This section presents statewide incidence compared to the national average, county-level data for all stages and late-stage diagnoses, and a historical breakdown of kidney cancer among Connecticut males.

Connecticut vs. National Rates (2018–2022)

Connecticut’s kidney cancer rates compared to the national average:

Connecticut — All Cancer Sites: 476.7 per 100,000 (US: 448.6)
Connecticut — Kidney & Renal Pelvis: 15.5 per 100,000 (US: 17.5)
Average annual kidney & renal pelvis cancer cases in Connecticut: 724
Recent 5-year incidence trend (Connecticut): Stable (−3.0%; confidence interval includes zero)
Recent 5-year incidence trend (United States): Falling (−1.0%)

Connecticut’s kidney and renal pelvis cancer incidence (15.5 per 100,000) is notably below the national rate (17.5), even as the state’s overall cancer incidence exceeds the national average.

Incidence by County

All Stages (2018–2022)

Sorted from highest to lowest rate

County	Rate per 100,000	95% Confidence Interval	Avg. Annual Cases	Recent 5-Year Trend
New London County	17.4	15.4 – 19.6	62	Rising (+2.3%)
Middlesex County	17.3	14.9 – 20.0	43	Rising (+13.0%)
New Haven County	16.5	15.4 – 17.7	183	Stable
Hartford County	16.3	15.2 – 17.4	184	Stable
Windham County	16.0	13.3 – 19.2	25	Stable
Tolland County	13.9	11.6 – 16.6	28	Stable
Litchfield County	13.6	11.7 – 15.8	40	Rising (+1.3%)
Fairfield County	13.4	12.5 – 14.4	160	Stable
Connecticut	15.5	15.0 – 16.0	724	Stable
United States	17.5	17.5 – 17.6	70,592	Falling (−1.0%)

New London and Middlesex counties report the highest kidney cancer incidence rates in Connecticut, both exceeding the national average — and both showing statistically significant rising trends.

Late Stage (2018–2022)

Late-stage diagnosis indicates how often cancer is caught at an advanced stage, which is associated with worse outcomes. Counties listed from highest to lowest late-stage rate:

County	Rate per 100,000	95% Confidence Interval	Avg. Annual Cases	% Diagnosed Late
New Haven County	5.3	4.7 – 6.0	60	32.7%
Hartford County	4.8	4.3 – 5.5	55	29.9%
New London County	4.8	3.9 – 6.0	19	30.3%
Windham County	4.6	3.2 – 6.4	7	29.1%
Middlesex County	4.5	3.4 – 5.9	12	28.6%
Litchfield County	3.8	2.9 – 5.1	11	28.5%
Fairfield County	3.4	3.0 – 3.9	42	26.3%
Tolland County	2.7	1.8 – 4.1	5	19.6%
Connecticut	4.4	4.2 – 4.7	212	29.3%
United States	5.0	5.0 – 5.0	20,556	29.1%

Connecticut’s late-stage kidney cancer incidence rate (4.4 per 100,000) is below the US average (5.0), and the proportion of cases diagnosed late (29.3%) is nearly identical to the national proportion (29.1%).

Historical Data: Kidney Cancer Among Connecticut Males (2015)

Cancer Site Rankings

Kidney and renal pelvis cancer ranked seventh among all male cancers diagnosed in Connecticut in 2015.

Rank	Cancer Site	Count	% of All Male Cancers
1	Prostate	2,380	23.7%
2	Lung and Bronchus	1,245	12.4%
3	Urinary Bladder	876	8.7%
4	Colon and Rectum	799	8.0%
5	Melanoma of the Skin	530	5.3%
6	Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma	526	5.2%
7	Kidney and Renal Pelvis	459	4.6%
8	Oral Cavity and Pharynx	390	3.9%
9	Pancreas	323	3.2%
10	Leukemia	312	3.1%
—	All Other Cancers	2,190	21.8%
—	All Cancers Combined	10,030	100.0%

Potential Life-Years Lost (PLL) to Age 75

Kidney and renal pelvis cancer accounted for 608 potential life-years lost — 2.7% of the total cancer PLL burden, placing it 10th among cancer sites. Full rankings among Connecticut males (2005–2015):

Cancer Site	Years of PLL	% of Total PLL	APC Trend
Lung & Bronchus	4,628	20.8%	−4.1%
Colon & Rectum	1,758	7.9%	Not significant
Liver & IHB	1,713	7.7%	Not significant
Pancreas	1,705	7.7%	−2.3%
Brain & CNS	1,625	7.3%	Not significant
Leukemia	1,125	5.1%	Not significant
Esophagus	1,060	4.8%	Not significant
Prostate	895	4.0%	Not significant
Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma	823	3.7%	Not significant
Kidney & Renal Pelvis	608	2.7%	Not significant
All Cancers Combined	22,273	100.0%	−1.8%

Incidence by Race and Ethnicity (2011–2015)

Population Group	Total Cases (5-Year)	Age-Adjusted Rate per 100,000	95% Lower CL	95% Upper CL
Total	2,191	22.2	21.3	23.2
Non-Hispanic White	1,808	22.4	21.4	23.5
Non-Hispanic Black	171	21.7	18.4	25.3
Hispanic	151	21.1	17.4	25.3

Kidney and renal pelvis cancer ranked seventh among all male cancers in Connecticut in 2015, accounting for 459 cases and 4.6% of all male cancer diagnoses.

Dialysis

For patients who cannot receive a transplant, dialysis is life-sustaining care. Dialysis is life support: treating kidney failure and its comorbidities is more consuming than a full-time job, and more than 80% of dialysis patients cannot work.

Dialysis centers in Connecticut: 44
Connecticut residents on dialysis (national overview): 3,762
Medicare-covered patients on dialysis: 3,701

Connecticut’s 44 dialysis centers serve thousands of patients who depend on the treatment to survive. The dialysis-dependent population has remained persistently large across all reporting years, consistently accounting for more than 60% of all kidney failure patients.

Kidney Transplants

Kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for kidney failure, offering better survival outcomes and quality of life than dialysis. However, access is severely limited by the chronic shortage of donor organs and the capacity of transplant centers.

Waiting List and Access

Access to kidney transplants remains severely constrained in Connecticut. The table below summarizes transplant waiting list size, the fraction of patients receiving a transplant each year, total transplants performed, and the breakdown by donor type.

Report Year	Patients on Waiting List	Annual Transplant Rate	Total Transplants	Living Donor	Deceased Donor	Change vs. ~10 Years Prior
2021	958	~1 in 4	239 (2020)	—	—	—
2022	933	~1 in 4	237 (2021)	77	160	+54.9% since 2011
2023	930	~1 in 4	259 (2022)	83	176	+61.9% since 2012
2024	882	~1 in 3	269	88	181	+78% since 2013
2025	876	~1 in 4	222 (2024)	81	141	+39% since 2014
2026	987	~1 in 5	217 (2025)	76	141	+35% since 2015

Additional key facts:

39 patients died while on the kidney transplant waiting list in 2020
Living donor transplants increased 21% compared to 2014 (2025 data) and 3% compared to 2015 (2026 data)
Only about 1 in 5 Connecticuters on the waiting list received a transplant in 2025 — the most restrictive access rate in the reporting period

Although total transplant volume in Connecticut has risen substantially compared to a decade ago — by 35 to 78% depending on the baseline year — this growth has not kept pace with need. The waiting list grew to 987 patients in the 2026 report (the highest in the period), while the number of transplants performed dropped to 217, meaning only approximately 1 in 5 patients received a transplant that year.

Transplant Centers

Connecticut has two kidney transplant centers: Hartford Hospital (Hartford, CT) and Yale New Haven Hospital (New Haven, CT). Both are members of the National Kidney Registry (NKR). Hartford Hospital performs the higher volume of transplants.

Donor Programs

Feature	Hartford Hospital	Yale New Haven Hospital
NKR Transplants — Last 12 Months	36	12
Prioritization — Deceased Donor	✓	✓
Prioritization — Living Donor	✓	✓
Donor Shield	✓	✓
NKR Remote Donation	✓	✓
Voucher Program	✓	✓
NKR Member Center	✓	✓
Equal Access Commitment	✓	✗
Donor Referral Network	✓	✗
Kidney for Life	✓	✗
Donor Care Network	✓	✗
Nutcracker Care Network	✓	✗

Both centers share the core NKR infrastructure — deceased and living donor prioritization, Donor Shield, Remote Donation, the Voucher Program, and NKR membership.

Recipient Programs

Data period: April 1, 2025 – March 31, 2026

Feature	Hartford Hospital	Yale New Haven Hospital
NKR Transplants (Last 12 Months)	36	12
NKR Living Donor Tx — Prior Year	40	10
Total Living Donor Tx — Prior Year	50	38
NKR Share of Living Donor Tx	80%	27%
Low Eplet Tx — Last 12 Months	8	2
Kidney for Life Participant	Yes	No
Patient Microsites	Yes	No
Microsite Center of Excellence	Yes	No
Non-Steroidal Protocol	Yes	No
Voucher Program	Yes	Yes
NKR Member Center	Yes	Yes
Equal Access Commitment	Yes	No

Hartford Hospital leads across nearly all recipient program metrics. Eighty percent of its living donor transplants are coordinated through the NKR, compared to 27% at Yale New Haven.

Adult Outcomes

Important note: The higher a center’s transplant volume, the less likely it is to achieve 100% survival rates. Centers that accept medically complex cases are also likely to report lower survival rates.

Metric	Hartford Hospital	Yale New Haven Hospital
NKR Tx — Last 12 Months	36	12
Living Donor Tx — Prior Year	50	38
LD 1-Year Graft Survival	99%	99%
LD 3-Year Graft Survival	97%	96%
LD 1-Year Patient Survival	99%	99%
LD 3-Year Patient Survival	99%	96%
DD 1-Year Graft Survival	89%	93%
DD 3-Year Graft Survival	88%	86%
DD 1-Year Patient Survival	93%	97%
DD 3-Year Patient Survival	91%	92%

Both centers achieve excellent outcomes for living donor transplants, with identical 99% one-year graft and patient survival rates. For deceased donor transplants, Yale New Haven reports higher one-year graft survival (93% vs. 89%) and one-year patient survival (97% vs. 93%), while Hartford achieves modestly better three-year graft survival (88% vs. 86%)..

Pediatric Outcomes

Only Yale New Haven Hospital reports pediatric kidney transplant outcomes in Connecticut.

NKR Transplants — Last 12 Months: 12
Living Donor Tx — Prior Year: 38
Living Donor 1-Year Graft Survival: 100%
Living Donor 3-Year Graft Survival: 100%
Living Donor 1-Year Patient Survival: 100%
Living Donor 3-Year Patient Survival: 100%
Deceased Donor 1-Year Graft Survival: 100%
Deceased Donor 3-Year Graft Survival: 88%
Deceased Donor 1-Year Patient Survival: 100%
Deceased Donor 3-Year Patient Survival: 100%

Yale New Haven Hospital’s pediatric kidney transplant outcomes are exceptional, achieving 100% survival rates in nine of ten tracked categories. The only exception is deceased donor three-year graft survival at 88%, which still reflects strong performance.

Kidney Disease and Kidney Cancer Mortality Statistics

Nephritis and Nephrosis Mortality

Kidney disease deaths from nephritis and nephrosis represent the direct mortality burden of kidney failure and related disorders. Data covers 2019–2023.

County	Death Rate per 100,000	95% Confidence Interval	Avg. Annual Deaths	Recent 5-Year Trend
New London County	15.3	13.6 – 17.2	58	Stable
New Haven County	15.2	14.2 – 16.2	182	Rising (+3.9%)
Hartford County	14.6	13.6 – 15.6	179	Stable
Tolland County	13.1	10.9 – 15.7	25	Stable
Litchfield County	11.9	10.2 – 13.8	36	Stable
Windham County	11.4	9.1 – 14.1	18	Stable
Fairfield County	10.1	9.3 – 10.9	129	Stable
Middlesex County	9.2	7.6 – 11.1	25	Stable
Connecticut	13.0	12.6 – 13.5	652	Rising (+2.4%)
United States	13.4	13.3 – 13.4	54,332	Stable

Connecticut’s kidney disease death rate (13.0 per 100,000) is slightly below the national average (13.4), but the state’s trend is rising (+2.4% per year) while the national trend is stable — a concerning divergence. New Haven County is a particular area of concern: it has both one of the highest death rates in the state (15.2) and a statistically significant rising trend (+3.9% per year), with 182 average annual deaths.

Cancer Death Rates by County (2019–2023)

County	Death Rate per 100,000	95% Confidence Interval	Avg. Annual Deaths	Recent 5-Year Trend
Windham County	4.0	2.7 – 5.7	6	Stable
New Haven County	3.0	2.6 – 3.5	34	Falling (−2.0%)
Hartford County	2.8	2.4 – 3.3	34	Stable
New London County	2.8	2.1 – 3.6	11	Stable
Tolland County	2.5	1.6 – 3.8	5	Falling (−2.6%)
Litchfield County	2.4	1.7 – 3.4	8	Stable
Fairfield County	2.3	1.9 – 2.7	29	Falling (−1.8%)
Middlesex County	2.1	1.4 – 3.2	6	Falling (−3.6%)
Connecticut	2.7	2.5 – 2.9	132	Falling (−1.6%)
United States	3.4	3.4 – 3.5	14,378	Falling (−1.4%)

Connecticut’s kidney cancer death rate (2.7 per 100,000) is well below the national average (3.4), and the state’s rate is falling at a pace (−1.6% per year) comparable to the national trend (−1.4%). Middlesex County shows the steepest improvement (−3.6%), while Windham County’s rate of 4.0 — the only county exceeding the national average — warrants attention, though it is based on only 6 average annual deaths. New Haven, Fairfield, and Tolland counties also show statistically significant declining mortality trends.

Financial Burden and Patient Support

Kidney failure imposes a severe financial burden on patients, families, and the healthcare system. This section covers Medicare costs by patient type, charitable grant assistance, insurance coverage patterns, and the socioeconomic profile of affected patients.

Annual Healthcare Costs

A successful kidney transplant dramatically reduces the long-term cost of kidney failure care:

Pre-kidney failure (CKD): $23,558 per year (average Medicare cost)
Dialysis patient: $90,323 per year (average Medicare cost)
Kidney transplant recipient (after first year): $25,942 per year (average Medicare cost)

A kidney transplant reduces annual Medicare costs by approximately $64,000 per patient per year compared to dialysis.

AKF Charitable Assistance

The American Kidney Fund provides grants to low-income dialysis and transplant patients to help pay for insurance premiums and health care costs not covered by insurance.

Year	Recipients of AKF Grants	Total AKF Assistance
2020	451	~$2,000,000
2021	392	$1,739,838
2022	313	$1,425,106
2023	274	$1,053,430
2024	234	$1,072,706
2025	218	Not reported

Both the number of AKF grant recipients and total charitable assistance have declined significantly since 2020 — the number of recipients fell by more than half (from 451 to 218) and total assistance dropped from approximately $2 million to just over $1 million.

Insurance Coverage of Assisted Patients

The following data shows how AKF assistance recipients were insured across four available years.

2024

Medigap: 27.3%
Medicare Part B: 25.0%
Commercial Employer Group Plans (incl. COBRA): 20.1%
Medicare Advantage: 0.6%

2023

Medicare Part B: 44.6%
Medigap: 23.4%
Employer Group Health Plans (incl. COBRA): 17.2%
Medicare Advantage: 1.4%

2022

Medicare Part B: 40.9%
Medigap: 27.2%
Commercial Employer Group Plans (incl. COBRA): 17.7%
Medicare Advantage: 1.3%

2021

Medicare Part B: 36.8%
Medigap: 31.1%
Employer Group Health Plans (incl. COBRA): 18.9%
Commercial Plans: 10.5%
Exchange Plans: 3.4%
Annuity: 1.5%
Medicare Advantage: 1.2%
Medicaid (states with premiums): 0.1%

Medicare Part B and Medigap (Medicare supplemental coverage) are consistently the most common insurance types among AKF assistance recipients in Connecticut, reflecting the predominantly Medicare-eligible population of dialysis and transplant patients.

Patient Demographics and Socioeconomic Profile

The kidney failure population in Connecticut — and particularly those requiring charitable assistance — faces compounding economic and social disadvantages.

Dialysis patients unable to work: >80%
Kidney failure classification: A disability
Average annual income of AKF-assisted patients: <$25,000
Average annual out-of-pocket costs for dialysis patients: >$10,000
Minority patients among those AKF assists: >60% (Black: 34.7%; Hispanic / Latino: 20.9%; Native American / Asian / Pacific Islander: 5.2%)

Kidney failure is profoundly disabling: the vast majority of dialysis patients cannot maintain employment, yet they face out-of-pocket medical costs exceeding $10,000 per year on average incomes below $25,000 — a ratio that constitutes severe financial hardship. The racial and ethnic composition of patients receiving AKF assistance reflects the well-documented disproportionate burden of kidney failure in Black, Hispanic, and Native American communities, where the two primary risk factors — diabetes and high blood pressure — are also more prevalent.

Conclusion

Connecticut’s kidney disease landscape presents a picture of growing burden alongside incremental progress. The total kidney failure population has risen steadily, reaching 7,460 residents in the most recent reporting year, while the number living with a functioning transplant has grown from 2,455 to 2,913 over the same period — a sign that transplant access has improved modestly. Both transplant centers achieve strong clinical outcomes, with Hartford Hospital emerging as a more comprehensive program across donor and recipient services, and Yale New Haven Hospital providing the state’s only pediatric kidney transplant service with exceptional survival results.

Several trends demand urgent attention. The proportion of patients on the waiting list who receive a transplant has declined to approximately 1 in 5, even as the waiting list itself has grown to nearly 1,000 patients. Kidney disease mortality from nephritis and nephrosis is rising statewide at a pace that outpaces the stable national trend, with New Haven County registering a statistically significant increase of nearly 4% per year. Financial hardship remains pervasive: dialysis patients face out-of-pocket costs exceeding $10,000 per year on average incomes below $25,000, and more than 80% cannot work. Minority communities — Black, Hispanic, and Native American — continue to bear a disproportionate share of the disease burden.

Prevention and access are the two levers most likely to change outcomes at scale. Diabetes and high blood pressure together account for approximately three-quarters of all kidney failure cases in Connecticut, and both are closely tied to obesity, which affects nearly 30% of the state’s adults. Reducing kidney failure incidence requires sustained investment in managing these chronic conditions at the population level. At the same time, expanding living and deceased donor transplant programs — which cost Medicare approximately $64,000 less per patient per year than dialysis — would simultaneously improve patient outcomes and reduce long-term healthcare costs across the state.