Kidney cancer statistics

Kidney cancer is the 14th most common cancer worldwide.

Latest kidney cancer data

Kidney cancer (also known as renal cancer or renal cell adenocarcinoma) is the 14th most common cancer worldwide. It is the 9th most common cancer in men and the 14th most common cancer in women.

There were more than 430,000 new cases of kidney cancer in 2020.

The 10 countries with the highest rates of kidney cancer and the highest number of deaths from kidney cancer in 2020 are shown in the tables below.

ASR = age-standardised rates. These are a summary measure of the rate of disease that a population would have if it had a standard age structure. Standardisation is necessary when comparing populations that differ with respect to age because age has a powerful influence on the risk of dying from cancer.

Kidney cancer rates

The following 3 tables show total global kidney cancer incidence and rates in 2020, followed by the figures for men and women. Lithuania had the highest overall rate of kidney cancer in 2020, followed by Czechia (formerly known as the Czech Republic).

RankCountryNumberASR/100,000
World431,2884.6
1Lithuania81414.5
2Czechia3,31414.4
3Uruguay77414.3
4Estonia38613.7
5Slovakia1,33613.5
6Latvia52413.5
7US69,56912.4
8Belarus1,91412.2
9Ireland98712.1
10France14,70511.2
Rank (men)CountryNumberASR/100,000
World271,2496.1
1Uruguay50821.1
2Lithuania47120.7
3Estonia23220.6
4Czechia2,11920.5
5Latvia28519.1
6Belarus1,22818.6
7Slovakia80118.3
8Ireland67316.9
9US43,75716.4
10France9,66716.1
Rank (women)CountryNumberASR/100,000
World160,0393.2
1Lithuania34310.1
2Slovakia5359.4
3Latvia2399.3
4Czechia1,1959.0
5US25,8128.8
6Uruguay2668.6
7Estonia1548.6
8Samoa78.6
9Russia11,1327.7
10UK5,5187.6

Kidney cancer deaths

The following 3 tables show total global kidney cancer mortality in 2020, followed by the figures for men and women. Slovakia had the highest overall mortality rate from kidney cancer in 2020, followed by Uruguay.

RankCountryNumberASR/100,000
World179,3681.8
1Slovakia5714.7
2Uruguay2924.4
3Czechia1,1504.3
4Latvia2304.3
5Lithuania2974.2
6Estonia1544.1
7Argentina2,4453.8
8Belarus6603.7
9Poland3,1303.5
10Hungary7983.5
Rank (men)CountryNumberASR/100,000
World115,6002.5
1Slovakia3557.4
2Uruguay1987.2
3Latvia1277.1
4Estonia927.1
5Lithuania1797.0
6Montenegro376.7
7Belarus4496.6
8Czechia7356.4
9Argentina1,6836.2
10Russia5,9665.8
Rank (women)CountryNumberASR/100,000
World63,7681.2
1Slovakia2162.8
2Ireland1492.7
3Samoa22.7
4Latvia1032.6
5Czechia4152.5
6Hungary3382.3
7Lithuania1182.3
8Uruguay942.3
9Croatia1592.2
10Estonia622.2

What causes kidney cancer?

There is evidence that the following are associated with an increased risk of kidney cancer: smoking, painkillers containing phenacetin (no longer used as an ingredient), polycystic kidney disease and hypertension.

There is also strong evidence that:

  • being overweight or obese INCREASES the risk of kidney cancer
  • being tall INCREASES the risk of kidney cancer (the taller a person is, the greater his or her risk of kidney cancer)
  • consuming alcoholic drinks DECREASES the risk of kidney cancer, when consuming up to 30 grams (about 2 drinks) a day. There is insufficient, specific evidence for higher levels of drinking – for example, 50 grams (about 3 drinks) or 70 grams (about 5 drinks) a day. It is also important to remember that there is strong evidence that alcohol is linked to an increased risk of six other cancers. Read more about this intriguing finding.

There is some evidence that:

> Read more about what can cause and what can protect against kidney cancer

Notes

The data on this page comes from the Global Cancer Observatory, owned by the World Health Organization/International Agency for Research on Cancer, and is used with permission. The cancer incidence figures and ASRs were compiled using the data available here (last accessed 23 March 2022). For queries about our cancer statistics please email the Research Interpretation team: ri@wcrf.org.