Mortality UK

UK cancer mortality statistics by age

This page present cancer mortality statistics by age at death.

The distribution of deaths from cancer, by age and sex, is shown in Figure 2.11-3. The majority of deaths from cancer occur in the elderly. More than three quarters of cancer deaths (76%) occur in people aged 65 years and over. The death rates rise with increasing age.

Figure 2.1: Number of deaths and mortality rate, all malignant neoplasms, by age and sex, UK

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Although there is a higher number of cancer deaths in the over 65s, cancer causes a greater proportion of deaths in younger people. Cancer caused a quarter of deaths in the over 65s in the UK in 2006, whereas cancer was responsible for more than a third (36%) of all deaths in the under 65s. In females under the age of 65 cancer causes 45% of deaths, while in males it is only 30%.

In people under the age of 75 years in the UK in 2006, deaths from cancer (76,063 deaths) continued to outnumber deaths from diseases of the circulatory system (ICD-10 codes I00-I99, which includes heart disease and stroke) and diseases of the respiratory system (ICD-10 J00-J99) combined (respectively 53,667 and 17,080 deaths; combined: 70,047).1-3

Reference for cancer mortality by age

  1. Office for National Statistics, Mortality Statistics: Cause England & Wales, 2006. Vol. DH2 No.32. 2006: TSO.
  2. GRO for Scotland Registrar General's Annual Report, 2006.
  3. Northern Ireland Cancer Registry Cancer Mortality in Northern Ireland, 2006 2006

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