Is the cancer death rate going down?

Yes. According to the National Cancer Institute, the overall cancer death rate in the United States has declined since the early 1990s.

The most recent Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, released in April 2025, showed that overall cancer death rates decreased by:

• 1.7% per year among men from 2018 to 2022
• 1.3% per year among women from 2018 to 2022
• 1.5% per year among children ages 0–14 from 2001 to 2022

Although death rates for many individual cancer types have also declined, rates for a few cancers have not changed or even increased.

As the overall cancer death rate has fallen, the number of cancer survivors has grown. These trends show that progress is being made, but much work remains. For example, rates of smoking have declined, but rates of other risk factors, such as obesity, have increased, and the U.S. population is aging while cancer rates increase with age.

A healthcare team can explain how broad trends do or do not relate to an individual's situation.