New data from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), published in June 2026, shows the number of people having IVF in the UK has nearly tripled over the past three decades, rising from around 19,000 patients in the early 1990s to 53,000 in 2024. IVF now accounts for more than 3% of all UK births, roughly one child in every classroom, up from under 1.5% just twenty years ago.
The demand is real. What’s shrinking is the proportion of it the NHS is paying for. The same report shows NHS-funded cycles have fallen from 35% of the total in 2019 to 28% in 2024 across the UK, and to just 25% in England specifically. In practice, more patients than ever are funding their own treatment, at a time when the number of people needing it keeps climbing.
That combination, rising demand and falling NHS coverage, is reshaping who ends up in a private fertility clinic and why. It’s no longer only patients who fell outside NHS eligibility criteria on age, BMI or existing children. It increasingly includes people who never had a realistic shot at NHS funding to begin with, given how unevenly local integrated care boards apply it, and went private from the outset rather than face a longer wait with no guarantee of treatment.
Two other trends in the data point the same way. Frozen embryo transfer now accounts for nearly half of all cycles (48%), and egg and embryo freezing makes up 17%, both signs that more patients are planning treatment around their own timeline rather than starting cold when a diagnosis prompts it. Success rates also vary sharply by age: the HFEA puts the average birth rate at 30% per embryo transferred, ranging from 38% for patients aged 18 to 34 down to 8% for those aged 43 to 44, a gap that shapes how clinics counsel patients on timing.
The private sector is scaling to absorb that shortfall. IBISWorld values the UK fertility clinics market at £470.9m in 2025, and separate market analysis puts the wider sector on a compound annual growth rate of over 9% out to 2030, broadly doubling in size over the decade.
Consolidation has followed a pattern familiar from other corners of UK private healthcare, with larger groups acquiring standalone clinics to build networks capable of absorbing patients the NHS can no longer fund.
Employers are starting to fill part of the gap too, if unevenly. Chartered Management Institute research published in January 2025 found fewer than one in five UK employers currently offer a dedicated fertility benefit, despite a single IVF cycle typically costing £5,000 to £10,000 or more out of pocket. Where it is offered, it’s increasingly framed as a retention tool alongside parental leave and other family policies, rather than a niche perk, as employers compete for staff in a tight labour market.
With NHS funding continuing to narrow rather than expand, and patient numbers showing no sign of levelling off, the private fertility sector looks set to keep absorbing demand the public system can’t meet. For a growing number of would-be parents, the practical question is no longer only whether to go private, but what it will actually cost; therefore, it is crucial that clinics publish clear and upfront numbers. For example, IVI UK have clearly outlined their Fertility treatment costs, making the decision considerably easier to weigh up.