Cancer statistics for England

This briefing gives an overview of cancer statistics for England. It covers  information on cancer diagnoses and deaths, as well as statistics on NHS screening and treatment. Please download the PDF report above for full information and charts.

New diagnoses of cancer

In 2022, there were 346,217 new cases of cancer diagnosed in England. The number of cancer diagnoses increased each year since 1995, except for 2020 – a decrease which is likely to be due to the disruption of cancer diagnostic pathways during the coronavirus pandemic.

The generally increasing trend in diagnoses can be partly explained by population change. Incidence rates (the number of new diagnoses per 100,000 population) rose slowly between 1995 and 2013 and have since broadly levelled out – apart from a fall in 2020 coinciding with the coronavirus pandemic.

Source: Cancer Registration Statistics for England 2022, Table 3 (and previous years)

Cancer incidence varies with age and sex

Overall incidence of cancer was 21% higher in men that women in 2020. Over half of people newly diagnosed with cancer are aged over 70. Among people aged 25 to 59, incidence rates are higher in women than in men. Among people aged over 65, incidence rates are around 50% higher in men than in women.

 Source: Cancer Registration Statistics, England 2022, Table 3

Types of cancer

Over half of cancers fall into four types: prostate, breast, lung, and colorectal.

Source: Cancer Registration Statistics, England 2022, Table 3

Deaths from cancer

Cancer is the cause of just over a quarter of all deaths in England in a typical year.  In 2022 in England, 138,579 people died from cancer.

Deaths have increased but rates have fallen

The number of deaths has increased by 9% since 2001. But after accounting for the fact that England’s population is both growing and ageing, the rate of cancer deaths has fallen.

Source: ONS NOMIS, Mortality statistics

Survival of cancer

Cancer survival rates vary between types of cancer.

Over 95% of people diagnosed with breast, prostate or skin cancer between 2016 and 2020 survived for one year after their diagnosis. However, less than half of people with lung, liver, and pancreatic cancer survived for one year after their diagnosis.

Source: Cancer survival in England for patients diagnosed between 2015 and 2019, and followed up to 2020.

Cancer and the NHS

Since the covid-19 pandemic, NHS England have begun to publish ‘management information’ showing the backlog of patients who are waiting over 62 days for treatment after an urgent GP referral with suspected cancer. This does not include people on the waiting list who had been waiting for under 62 days.

As of the start of November 2024, the backlog was 17,117, down from a peak of 33,950 in September 2022, and also lower than the figure at the start of November 2023 (24,100).

Source: NHS England, Management Information on Cancer

The brieing paper download alsos contain information on performance against NHS cnacer treatment standards as well as details of cancer screeing uptake.

More statistics and sources

Many other cancer statistics are available. Selected links to other statistics and sources are given below.

Both the NHS CancerData site and the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service site collate a wide range of statistics and sources.

Devolved Nations

Data for Scotland can be found on the Public Health Scotland site.

Data for Wales can be found on the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit site.

Data for Northern Ireland can be found on the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry site.