How have cancer rates changed over time?
Cancer rates declined 8.6% overall from 2000 to 2022 — but increased 8.5% among people under the age of 50.
Between 2000 and 2022, the national cancer incidence rate — the rate of new cases per 100,000 people — declined by 8.6%. But the incidence rate for some demographic groups rose: people under the age of 50 (+8.5%), American Indian and Alaska Native people (+14.3%), and women (+0.05%).
In the same period, the cancer mortality rate dropped by 27.7%, meaning that a cancer diagnosis is generally less deadly than it used to be.
How many people get cancer?
According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), nearly two out of every five Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives; an estimated 18.6 million people were living with some form of cancer in 2023. That’s more than the populations of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston combined.
In 2022, 1.9 million people were diagnosed with cancer. The number of new cancer cases has increased every year since 2000 except four, and the NCI projects there will be more than 2.1 million new cancer cases in 2026.
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But those raw numbers aren’t the whole story: though the overall number of cases grew along with the population, fewer people were diagnosed and died from cancer relative to the population overall. Conversely, a drop in recorded cases doesn’t always mean fewer cases; NCI attributes the 2020 case decline to fewer screenings as the COVID-19 pandemic made care harder to access. There were 442.3 new cases of cancer per 100,000 people in 2022, a decline of 8.6% since 2000.
There were 1.9 million new cancer cases in 2022, or 442.3 cases for every 100K people.
Age-adjusted incidence rate per 100,000 people and total cancer cases, 2000–2022
What are the most common cancers?
Breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancers accounted for nearly half of new cases in 2022. More than 613,000 people died of cancer that year, largely to lung, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers.
Four types of cancer represented about half of new cancer cases in 2022.
Cancer incidence by leading types of cancer, 2022
How have cancer rates changed over time by cancer type?
The rates of 17 cancers went down and 16 went up between 2000 and 2022. The biggest drop? Prostate cancer, with a net rate change of -52.8 per 100,000 people. It was followed by lung (-20.8 per 100,000, which includes cancer of the bronchus, the tubes that carry air into the lungs) and colorectal cancers (-19.0 per 100,000).
The largest increase was skin melanoma, aka skin cancer, a net change of +7.7 per 100,000 people. Thyroid (+5.3 per 100,000) and kidney cancers (+4.5 per 100,000, which includes cancer of the renal pelvis, a basin that funnels liquids from a kidney) also had notable rises.
The rate of new prostate cancer declined the most — skin cancer increased the most.
Age-adjusted cancer incidence per 100,000 people by type, percent of cases, rate, and net rate change
At what age are people most likely to get cancer?
In 2022, 60% of new diagnoses and 74% of deaths occurred in people 65 and older. And cancer incidence rates increase as people age. People between ages 65 and 74 had 1,754.7 new cases per 100,000 in 2022; those 75+ in age had 2,200.9 cases per 100,000. That’s 2.8 times higher than the rate for 50- to 64-year-olds.
People ages 75+ had cancer diagnosis that was 2.8x the rate of people 50 to 64 years.
Age-adjusted cancer incidence rate per 100,000 people by age group, 2022
NCI data puts the median age of cancer diagnosis at 67 and the median age of death at 73 — but people can get diagnosed at any age, and certain cancers may be more prevalent among specific ages. The median age of person getting a breast cancer diagnosis is 63 years, younger than lung cancer’s 71 years of age.
How have cancer rates by age changed over time?
From 2000 to 2022, the rate of new cancer cases dropped for older populations and rose for people under-50 years. For ages 75+ it dropped by 8.9%, ages 65 to 74 dropped 14.1%, and ages 50 to 64 dropped 11.7%. Among people aged 35 to 49 case rates increased by 7.4%; rates went up 12.4% for people ages 20 to 34 and 11.7% for ages under-20.
Still, nearly nine out of every ten new cancer cases occur in Americans 50 and over.
People younger than 50 years had higher rates of cancer in 2022 vs. 2000.
Cancer incidence rate percent change between each year and 2000, by age group
Do cancer rates vary by sex?
Historically, men have had higher rates of both new cancer diagnoses and cancer-related deaths than women.
In 2022, the cancer incidence rate for men was 474.6 per 100,000 men, about 12.6% higher than women's 421.5 per 100,000.
The male cancer diagnosis rate fell 17.7% since 2000 vs a 0.05% increase in the female rate.
Age-adjusted cancer incidence rate per 100,000 people by sex, 2000–2022
Are there disparities in cancer case rates by race and ethnicity?
Some, yes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), white Americans had the highest incidence rate of new cancers at 458.6 cases per 100,000 people in 2022, followed by Black Americans at a rate of 445.4.
Yet as of 2023, Black Americans were more likely than any other racial or ethnic group to die from the disease: 161.8 per 100,000 people, 14.3% higher than the US average.
All racial and ethnic groups had drops in their incidence rates between 2000 and 2022 — except one. American Indian/Alaska Native people had a 14.3% increase. The largest drop in cancer incidence was among Black Americans, at -11.9%.
American Indian/Alaska Native new cancer diagnosis rates increased 14.3% from 2000 to 2022.
Age-adjusted cancer incidence rate per 100,000 people by race/ethnicity, 2000–2022
Where does this data come from?
Where does this data come from?
New cancer case / incidence data comes from the National Program of Cancer Registries, which operates within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program of the National Cancer Institute (part of the National Institutes of Health). Through these programs, the CDC financially supports cancer registries in 46 states, Washington, DC, and US territories. These joint data collection efforts cover 97% of the US population.
Mortality data comes from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. The registry covers all 50 states, two cities (Washington, DC and New York City), and five territories.
The intention of these data collection efforts is to provide comprehensive and standardized registries so researchers, policy makers, practitioners and the public can monitor the burden of cancer; evaluate cancer-related programs and prevention strategies; and identify local, state and national needs.
The CDC publishes cancer statistics on its visualization tool, which offers a dashboard of graphics and maps to illustrate trends over time, by cancer type, and by geography.
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Keep exploring
- What’s the breast cancer rate for women under 40? - The breast cancer diagnosis rate for women under 40 increased between 2000 and 2020, reaching an incidence rate of approximately 23 cases per 100,000 women.
- Which states have the highest cancer rates? - While cancer mortality has dropped across all states over the last 25 years, Kentucky topped the charts for new cases in 2022 and deaths in 2023.
- How many people in the US get colorectal cancer? - About 148,000 people were diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2022 and over 53,000 died in 2023.
- Mammograms are recommended beginning at age 50. Are women getting them? - 71.6% of women 50 and older have had a mammogram in the past two years. The biggest gap in screening rates is between insured and uninsured women.
