Breast cancer statistics - Key Facts

• Breast cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK.
• The lifetime risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer is 1 in 8 for women in the UK.
• In the UK in 2008 almost 47,700 women were diagnosed with breast cancer, that’s around 130 women a day.
• 341 men in the UK were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008.
• Female breast cancer incidence rates in Great Britain have increased by more than 50% over the last twenty-five years.
• In the last ten years, female breast cancer incidence rates in the UK have increased by 3.6%.
• 8 in 10 breast cancers are diagnosed in women aged 50 and over.
• In the UK in 2007/2008 the NHS breast screening programmes detected more than 16,000 cases of breast cancer.
• Worldwide, around 1.38 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008.
• In the European Union (EU-27) around 332,000 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in 2008.
• Breast cancer incidence rates vary considerably, with the highest rates in Western Europe and the lowest rates in Africa and Asia.

Read more in-depth breast cancer incidence statistics.

section updated 20/01/12

• Breast cancer survival rates have been improving for forty years. More women are surviving breast cancer than ever before.
• In the 1970s around 5 out of 10 women with breast cancer survived the disease beyond five years. Now it's more than 8 out of 10.
• Women diagnosed with breast cancer are now twice as likely to survive their disease for at least ten years than those diagnosed forty years ago.
• More than three-quarters of women diagnosed with breast cancer now survive their disease for at least ten years or more.
• Almost 2 out of 3 women with breast cancer now survive their disease beyond 20 years.
• Breast cancer survival rates are significantly higher among women from the most affluent areas compared to women living in the most deprived areas.
• Breast cancer survival rates are better the earlier the cancer is diagnosed.
• Around 9 out of 10 of women diagnosed with stage I breast cancer survive the disease beyond five years. This drops to around 1 out of 10 diagnosed with stage IV.

Read more in-depth breast cancer survival statistics.

• In 2008 in the UK around 12,000 women and around 70 men died from breast cancer.
• Each year there are around 1,300 deaths from breast cancer in women under 50.
• Since peaking in the late 1980s breast cancer death rates have fallen by more than a third.
• In the last ten years death rates for breast cancer have fallen by almost a fifth.
• In the UK breast cancer is now the second most common cause of death from cancer in women after lung.
• More than half of breast cancer deaths are women aged over 70.
• Worldwide around 458,000 women died from breast cancer in 2008.
• In the European Union (EU-27), around 89,000 women died from breast cancer in 2008.

Read more in-depth breast cancer mortality statistics.

• Women with a mother, sister or daughter diagnosed with breast cancer have almost double the risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer themselves.
• Risk increases with the number of first-degree relatives diagnosed with breast cancer, but even so, eight out of nine breast cancers occur in women without a family history of breast cancer.
• Obesity increases risk of postmenopausal breast cancer by up to 30%.
• Women currently using hormone replacement therapy (HRT) have a 66% increased risk of breast cancer.
• Use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has fallen in the UK in recent years, which has been estimated to prevent 1,400 breast cancer cases annually in women aged 50-59.
• The risk of breast cancer in current users of oral contraceptives is increased by around a quarter.
• Drinking moderate amounts of alcohol increases the risk of breast cancer - as little as one alcoholic drink per day increases breast cancer risk by around 12%.
• A more active lifestyle reduces breast cancer risk.

Read more in depth breast cancer risk factors.

*age-standardised to the European population

More in depth breast cancer statistics can be found using these links: incidence, survival, mortality, risk factors, molecular biology and genetics, symptoms and treatment and screening.