Hip dysplasia is a spectrum of disease. There are established screening programmes for its detection in childhood, but there is also increasing interest in its presentation and surgical treatment at skeletal maturity. This study was aimed at establishing patterns of operative treatment for hip dysplasia in the UK using the hospital episode statistics database over an 11-year period. From a total of 12 100 operations during this interval, there has been no significant change in the level of intervention in the paediatric population. There has, however, been a four-fold rise in procedures in the adult population over the same timeframe.