Worldwide cancer mortality statistics

Deaths

Deaths from cancer worldwide, 2020

Common cancers

More than 4 in 10 of all cancer deaths are lung, liver, stomach or bowel cancer, 2020, worldwide

Projection to 2040

Cancer mortality rates projected increase 2020-2040, worldwide

There were an estimated 10 million deaths from all cancers combined worldwide in 2020: 4.4 million (44%) in females and 5.5 million (56%) in males, giving a male:female ratio of 10:8.[1] The World age-standardised (AS) Open a glossary item mortality rate shows that there are 84.2 cancer deaths for every 100,000 females in the world and 120.8 cancer deaths for every 100,000 males.[1]

The four most common cause of cancer death worldwide are lung, bowel (including anus), liver and stomach cancers, and account for more than four in ten (44%) of all deaths.[1]

See also

Visit the Global Cancer Observatory for an interactive web-based platform to explore the global cancer statistics.

References

  1. International Agency for Research on Cancer, GLOBOCAN 2020 accessed via Global Cancer Observatory. Accessed February 2023.

About this data

Data is for: worldwide, 2020.

Some common cancers are defined using slightly different ICD codes in this section than used for UK data.

See the full details of data and methods.

Last reviewed:

The UK mortality rate for all cancers combined is lower than most of the countries in Europe (rank 29 of 40), it is estimated.[1] The four most common causes of cancer death in the UK are the same as for Europe as a whole (lung, bowel (including anus), female breast and pancreas).

All Cancers Combined (C00-C97), Deaths, World Age-Standardised (AS) Incidence Rates per 100,000 Population, UK compared to Europe, 2020

See also

Visit the Global Cancer Observatory for an interactive web-based platform to explore the global cancer statistics.

International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP)

References

  1. International Agency for Research on Cancer, GLOBOCAN 2020 accessed via Global Cancer Observatory. Accessed February 2023.

About this data

Data is for: worldwide, 2020.

Some common cancers are defined using slightly different ICD codes in this section than used for UK data.

See the full details of data and methods.

Last reviewed:

The UK mortality rate for all cancers combined is higher than most of the countries in the world (rank 65 of 185), it is estimated.[1] The four most common causes of cancer death in the UK are different to those for the world as a whole.

All Cancers Combined (C00-C97), Deaths, World Age-Standardised (AS) Incidence Rates per 100,000 Population, UK compared to Worldwide, 2020

See also

Visit the Global Cancer Observatory for an interactive web-based platform to explore the global cancer statistics.

International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP)

References

  1. International Agency for Research on Cancer, GLOBOCAN 2020 accessed via Global Cancer Observatory. Accessed February 2023.

About this data

Data is for: worldwide, 2020.

Some common cancers are defined using slightly different ICD codes in this section than used for UK data.

See the full details of data and methods.

Last reviewed:

It is predicted there will be 16.3 million deaths from cancer worldwide each year by 2040, if mortality remains stable and population growth and ageing continues in line with recent trends.[1] This is an increase of 63.7% from 2020 and is expected to be higher in males (66.8% increase) than in females (59.8% increase).

See also

Visit the Global Cancer Observatory for an interactive web-based platform to explore the global cancer statistics.

References

  1. International Agency for Research on Cancer, GLOBOCAN 2020 accessed via Global Cancer Observatory. Accessed February 2023.

About this data

Data is for: worldwide, 2020.

Some common cancers are defined using slightly different ICD codes in this section than used for UK data.

Caution should be taken with this data as historic trends of particular cancers may not have been taken into account, the current ASR may have only have been mapped onto population growth projections.

See the full details of data and methods.

Last reviewed:

Local Cancer Statistics

Local level cancer statistics; search profiles by area, constituency or health board in the UK.

Go to local cancer statistics

Interested in an overview for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland?

Go to devolved nations overviews

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

Citation

You are welcome to reuse this Cancer Research UK content for your own work.
Credit us as authors by referencing Cancer Research UK as the primary source. Suggested styles are:

Web content: Cancer Research UK, full URL of the page, Accessed [month] [year].
Publications: Cancer Research UK ([year of publication]), Name of publication, Cancer Research UK.
Graphics (when reused unaltered): Credit: Cancer Research UK.
Graphics (when recreated with differences): Based on a graphic created by Cancer Research UK.

When Cancer Research UK material is used for commercial reasons, we encourage a donation to our life-saving research.
Send a cheque payable to Cancer Research UK to: Cancer Research UK, 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ or

Donate Online 

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the many organisations across the UK which collect, analyse, and share the data which we use, and to the patients and public who consent for their data to be used. Find out more about the sources which are essential for our statistics.