Young people's cancers incidence statistics

Cases

New cases of young peoples' cancers each year, 2017-2019 average, UK

 

Proportion of all cases

Percentage young peoples' cancers is of total cancer cases, 2017-2019, UK

 

Age

Peak rate of young people's cancer cases, 2017-2019, UK

Trend over time

Change in young peoples' cancers incidence rates since the early 2000s, UK

 

Cancer in young people accounts for less than 1% of all new cancer cases in the UK (2017-2019).[1-4]

51% of young people's cancer cases in the UK are in females, and 49% are in males.

Young people's cancer incidence rates (European age-standardised (AS) rate Open a glossary item) are significantly lower than the UK average in Wales and are similar to the UK average in all other UK constituent countries.

Young People's Cancers (C00-C97, D32-D33, D35.2-D35.4, D42-D43, D44.3-D44.5), Average Number of New Cases Per Year, Crude and European Age-Standardised (AS) Incidence Rates per 100,000 Population, Ages 15-24, UK, 2017-2019

  England Scotland Wales Northern Ireland UK
Female Cases 1,008 97 48 41 1,195
Crude Rate 31.4 30.8 26.6 37.2 31.3
AS Rate 31.2 30.4 26.5 37.5 31.1
AS Rate - 95% LCI 30.1 26.9 22.2 30.9 30.1
AS Rate - 95% UCI 32.3 33.9 30.8 44.1 32.1
Male Cases 977 89 43 34 1,143
Crude Rate 28.8 27.6 21.5 28.9 28.3
AS Rate 28.6 27.6 21.4 29.3 28.2
AS Rate - 95% LCI 27.6 24.3 17.7 23.6 27.2
AS Rate - 95% UCI 29.7 30.9 25.2 34.9 29.1
Persons Cases 1,985 186 91 76 2,338
Crude Rate 30.0 29.2 23.9 32.9 29.7
AS Rate 29.9 29.0 23.9 33.2 29.6
AS Rate - 95% LCI 29.1 26.6 21.0 28.9 28.9
AS Rate - 95% UCI 30.6 31.4 26.7 37.6 30.3

95% LCL and 95% UCL are the 95% lower and upper confidence limits around the AS Rate Open a glossary item

See also

Want more detailed cancer incidence and survival statistics across the UK? Explore our Children and Young People's Cancers Data Hub

Young people's cancers mortality statistics by sex and UK country

Cancer incidence for common cancers in the UK

Cancer incidence statistics for all ages

Cancer incidence statistics for children

Cancer incidence and survival statistics by cancer type for children and young people

References

  1. England data were provided by the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS), part of the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) in NHS England, on request through the Office for Data Release, January 2023. Similar data can be found here: https://www.cancerdata.nhs.uk/ 

  2.  Northern Ireland data were provided by the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry (NICR) on request, October 2021. Similar data can be found here:http://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/nicr/. 

  3. Welsh data were published by the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit (WCISU), Health Intelligence Division, Public Health Wales https://phw.nhs.wales/services-and-teams/welsh-cancer-intelligence-and-surveillance-unit-wcisu/cancer-reporting-tool-official-statistics/ June 2022. 

  4. Scotland data were provided by the Scottish Cancer Registry, Public Health Scotland (PHS) on request, May 2021. Similar data can be found here: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/show-all-releases?id=20468

About this data

Data is for UK, 2017-2019, ICD-10 C00-C97, D32-D33, D35.2-D35.4, D42-D43, D44.3-D44.5.

Young peoples' cancers includes all malignant tumours (ICD-10 codes: C00-C97), and all non-malignant brain, other central nervous system and intracranial tumours (ICD-10 codes: D32-D33, D35.2-D35.4, D42-D43 and D44.3-D44.5).

Last reviewed:

The highest incidence rates for all young people's cancers combined are in those aged 20-24 for both sexes, with around two-thirds (65%) of all cases in young people being diagnosed in this age group (UK, 2017-2019).[1-4] This pattern varies greatly by cancer type.[5]

Young people’s cancers usually have no known cause. For most cancer types incidence increases with age, which largely reflects cell DNA damage accumulating over time. Damage can result from biological processes or from exposure to risk factors.

See also

Want more detailed cancer incidence and survival statistics across the UK? Explore our Children and Young People's Cancers Data Hub

Cancer incidence by age statistics for adults' cancers

Cancer incidence statistics for children's cancers

Cancer incidence and survival statistics by cancer type for children and young people

Cancer incidence and survival statistics by cancer type for children and young people

References

  1. Data were provided by the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (part of Public Health England), on request through the Office for Data Release, July 2021. Similar data can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/cancerregistrationstatisticsengland/previousReleases
  2. Data were provided by ISD Scotland on request, April 2020. Similar data can be found here: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Cancer/Publications.
  3. Data were published by the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit, Health Intelligence Division, Public Health Wales https://phw.nhs.wales/services-and-teams/welsh-cancer-intelligence-and-surveillance-unit-wcisu/cancer-incidence-in-wales-2002-2018/, March 2021.
  4. Data were provided by the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry on request, May 2020. Similar data can be found here: http://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/nicr/.
  5. Public Health England. Children, teenagers and young adults UK cancer statistics report 2021. Available from https://digital.nhs.uk/ndrs/data/data-outputs/ctya-uk-cancer-statistics-report-2021, accessed June 2021.

About this data

Data is for UK, 2017-2019, ICD-10 C00-C97, D32-D33, D35.2-D35.4, D42-D43, D44.3-D44.5.

Last reviewed:

European age-standardised (AS) Open a glossary item incidence rates for females and males combined increased by 9% in the UK between 2000-2002 and 2017-2019.[1-4] The change varied markedly between sexes.

For females, cancer AS incidence rates in the UK increased by 21% between 2000-2002 and 2017-2019. For males, cancer AS incidence rates in the UK remained stable between 2000-2002 and 2017-2019.

Over the last decade in the UK (between 2007-2009 and 2017-2019), young people's cancers AS incidence rates for females and males combined remained stable. For females, cancer AS incidence rates increased by 8%, and for males rates remained stable.

Young People's Cancers (C00-C97, D32-D33, D35.2-D35.4, D42-D43, D44.3-D44.5), European Age-Standardised Incidence Rates, Ages 15-24, UK, 2000 to 2019

[graph: Young people’s cancers includes all malignant tumours (ICD-10 codes: C00-C97) and all non-malignant brain, other central nervous system and intracranial tumours (ICD-10 codes: D32-D33, D35.2-D35.4, D42-D43 and D44.3-D44.5).]

These trends include non-malignant brain, other central nervous system and intracranial tumours because they account for a relatively high proportion of cases in this age group. Data on malignant tumours have been collected by UK cancer registries for many decades, but data on non-malignant brain tumours were not consistently collected until the early 2000s. This means trends starting before the early 2000s are not reliable for non-malignant brain tumours and are therefore not reported.

References

  1. England data were provided by the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS), part of the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) in NHS England, on request through the Office for Data Release, January 2023. Similar data can be found here: https://www.cancerdata.nhs.uk/ 

  2.  Northern Ireland data were provided by the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry (NICR) on request, October 2021. Similar data can be found here:http://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/nicr/. 

  3. Welsh data were published by the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit (WCISU), Health Intelligence Division, Public Health Wales https://phw.nhs.wales/services-and-teams/welsh-cancer-intelligence-and-surveillance-unit-wcisu/cancer-reporting-tool-official-statistics/ June 2022. 

  4. Scotland data were provided by the Scottish Cancer Registry, Public Health Scotland (PHS) on request, May 2021. Similar data can be found here: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/show-all-releases?id=20468

About this data

Data is for UK, 2000-2019, ICD-10 C00-C97, D32-D33, D35.2-D35.4, D42-D43, D44.3-D44.5.

Young people's cancers for England, Wales and Scotland includes all malignant tumours (ICD-10 codes: C00-C97), and all non-malignant brain, other central nervous system and intracranial tumours (ICD-10 codes: D32-D33, D35.2-D35.4, D42-D43 and D44.3-D44.5

Last reviewed:

Young people’s cancers are classified into 12 broad diagnostic groups (each of which can be further subdivided) according to the International Classification of Childhood Cancer, Third Edition (ICCC-3).[1] There are UK statistics for 88 distinct diagnostic subgroups of young people’s cancers.[2]

The most common groups of young people’s cancers in the UK are Other malignant epithelial neoplasms and malignant melanomas (30% of cases), Lymphomas and reticuloendothelial neoplasms (20% of cases), and Germ cell tumours, trophoblastic tumours, and neoplasms of gonads (16% of cases) (1997-2016).[2]

See also

See our new Children and Young People's Cancers Incidence and Survival Interactive Dashboard for data broken down by diagnostic group, UK nation, sex and age group

Find out more about the counting and coding of this data

Cancer incidence statistics for common cancers in the UK

Cancer incidence and survival statistics by cancer type for children and young people

References

  1. International Classification of Childhood Cancer, third edition(link is external). Cancer 2005;103:1457-67.
  2. Public Health England. Children, teenagers and young adults UK cancer statistics report 2021. Available from http://ncin.org.uk/cancer_type_and_topic_specific_work/cancer_type_specific_work/cancer_in_children_teenagers_and_young_adults/, accessed March 2021.

About this data

Data is for UK, 1997-2016, International Classification of Childhood Cancer, Third Edition (ICCC-3)

Last reviewed:

Nearly 33,800 people who had been diagnosed with cancer at age 15-24 in the UK between 1997 and 2016, were still alive at the end of 2018.[1]

See also

Cancer incidence statistics for all cancers in the UK

What is prevalence?

References 

  1. Public Health England. Children, teenagers and young adults UK cancer statistics report 2021. Available from http://ncin.org.uk/cancer_type_and_topic_specific_work/cancer_type_specific_work/cancer_in_children_teenagers_and_young_adults/, accessed March 2021.

About this data

Data is for UK, 1997-2016, International Classification of Childhood Cancer, Third Edition (ICCC-3)  

Last reviewed:

Cancer stats explained

See information and explanations on terminology used for statistics and reporting of cancer, and the methods used to calculate some of our statistics.

Cancer stats explained

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