How has the US cancer death rate changed since 1900?

The US cancer death rate rose from 114.8 deaths per 100,000 people in 1900 to a peak of 216.0 in 1990, then fell 31% to 149.1 by 2018. Rates are age-adjusted, so an older population does not by itself push them up. Cause-of-death coding has been revised several times since 1900, so small jumps can reflect those changes. This CDC dataset stops at 2018.

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Key facts

Measure: Cancer deaths per 100,000 people in a year, age-adjusted. Written from the data below.

  • The latest figure, for 2018, is 149.1.
  • That is up 30% from 114.8 in 1900.
  • The highest was 216 in 1990.
  • The lowest was 114.8 in 1900.

Source and date

Source
CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Age-adjusted death rates for selected major causes of death
License
Public domain (U.S. government work)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “How has the US cancer death rate changed since 1900?” Chart. Data: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Age-adjusted death rates for selected major causes of death, https://data.cdc.gov/National-Center-for-Health-Statistics/NCHS-Age-adjusted-Death-Rates-for-Selected-Major-C/6rkc-nb2q (data as of December 31, 2018). https://chart.ly/charts/cancer-death-rate (accessed October 15, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly.

Year Cancer deaths per 100,000 people in a year, age-adjusted
1900 114.8
1901 118.1
1902 119.7
1903 125.2
1904 127.9
1905 132.5
1906 128.8
1907 133
1908 134.5
1909 138.1
1910 143.1
1911 140.4
1912 144.7
1913 147.8
1914 146.6
1915 149.5
1916 152.2
1917 150.7
1918 148.4
1919 152.1
1920 159
1921 163.5
1922 165.6
1923 168.8
1924 170.6
1925 174.3
1926 177.3
1927 177.8
1928 177.8
1929 175.3
1930 174.5
1931 175.8
1932 179.2
1933 178.2
1934 181.6
1935 183.4
1936 186.8
1937 184.6
1938 185.7
1939 187.1
1940 187.8
1941 184.1
1942 183.8
1943 183.9
1944 183.8
1945 186.9
1946 187.1
1947 190.7
1948 193.4
1949 193.9
1950 193.9
1951 192
1952 194.2
1953 194.6
1954 194.3
1955 194.5
1956 195.6
1957 195.4
1958 192
1959 191.6
1960 193.9
1961 193.4
1962 193.3
1963 194.7
1964 193.6
1965 195.6
1966 196.5
1967 197.3
1968 198.8
1969 198.5
1970 198.6
1971 199.3
1972 200.3
1973 200
1974 201.5
1975 200.1
1976 202.5
1977 203.5
1978 204.9
1979 204
1980 207.9
1981 206.4
1982 208.3
1983 209.1
1984 210.8
1985 211.3
1986 211.5
1987 211.7
1988 212.5
1989 214.2
1990 216
1991 215.2
1992 213.5
1993 213.5
1994 211.7
1995 209.8
1996 206.7
1997 203.5
1998 200.7
1999 200.8
2000 199.6
2001 196.5
2002 194.3
2003 190.9
2004 186.8
2005 185.1
2006 181.8
2007 179.3
2008 176.4
2009 173.5
2010 172.8
2011 169
2012 166.5
2013 163.2
2014 161.2
2015 158.5
2016 155.8
2017 152.5
2018 149.1

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