Bladder cancer is the 10th most common cancer worldwide.
Bladder cancer is the 10th most common cancer worldwide. It is the 6th most common cancer in men and the 17th most common cancer in women.
There were more than 573,000 new cases of bladder cancer in 2020.
The 10 countries with the highest rates of bladder cancer and the highest number of deaths from bladder 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.
The following 3 tables show total global bladder cancer incidence and rates in 2020, followed by the figures for men and women. Greece had the highest overall rate of bladder cancer in 2020, followed by the Netherlands.
| Rank | Country | Number | ASR/100,000 |
| World | 573,278 | 5.6 | |
| 1 | Greece | 5,645 | 21.2 |
| 2 | The Netherlands | 7,417 | 17.2 |
| 3 | Italy | 28,336 | 16.4 |
| 4 | Denmark | 2,323 | 16.2 |
| 5 | Belgium | 4,527 | 16.0 |
| 6 | Spain | 18,512 | 15.8 |
| 7 | Germany | 35,147 | 15.3 |
| 8 | Hungary | 3,239 | 15.2 |
| 9 | Serbia | 2,549 | 14.1 |
| 10 | Croatia | 1,398 | 14.1 |
| Rank (men) | Country | Number | ASR/100,000 |
| World | 440,864 | 9.5 | |
| 1 | Greece | 4,842 | 39.7 |
| 2 | Italy | 22,524 | 28.4 |
| 3 | Spain | 14,838 | 27.3 |
| 4 | The Netherlands | 5,665 | 27.3 |
| 5 | Belgium | 3,551 | 27.1 |
| 6 | Denmark | 1,781 | 26.3 |
| 7 | Germany | 25,942 | 24.4 |
| 8 | Croatia | 1,046 | 24.0 |
| 9 | Hungary | 2,142 | 23.9 |
| 10 | Serbia | 1,911 | 23.1 |
| Rank (women) | Country | Number | ASR/100,000 |
| World | 132,414 | 2.4 | |
| 1 | Hungary | 1,097 | 9.1 |
| 2 | The Netherlands | 1,752 | 8.1 |
| 3 | Germany | 9,205 | 7.5 |
| 4 | Denmark | 542 | 7.1 |
| 5 | Norway | 453 | 7.0 |
| 6 | Switzerland | 722 | 6.7 |
| 7 | Mali | 345 | 6.6 |
| 8 | Serbia | 638 | 6.5 |
| 9 | Croatia | 352 | 6.5 |
| 10 | Belgium | 976 | 6.4 |
The following 3 tables show total global bladder cancer mortality in 2020, followed by the figures for men and women. Egypt had the highest overall mortality rate from bladder cancer in 2020, followed by Tunisia.
| Rank | Country | Number | ASR/100,000 |
| World | 212,536 | 1.9 | |
| 1 | Egypt | 6,170 | 7.8 |
| 2 | Tunisia | 822 | 5.2 |
| 3 | Libya | 242 | 5.0 |
| 4 | Poland | 5,026 | 4.9 |
| 5 | Mali | 426 | 4.8 |
| 6 | Slovakia | 629 | 4.7 |
| 7 | Latvia | 271 | 4.5 |
| 8 | São Tomé and Príncipe | 5 | 4.4 |
| 9 | Algeria | 1,861 | 4.3 |
| 10 | Serbia | 931 | 4.3 |
| Rank (men) | Country | Number | ASR/100,000 |
| World | 158,785 | 3.3 | |
| 1 | Egypt | 4,848 | 14.1 |
| 2 | Latvia | 212 | 10.7 |
| 3 | Tunisia | 717 | 10.3 |
| 4 | Libya | 215 | 10.2 |
| 5 | Slovakia | 500 | 9.8 |
| 6 | Poland | 3,863 | 9.5 |
| 7 | Georgia | 276 | 8.5 |
| 8 | Cyprus | 93 | 8.0 |
| 9 | Montenegro | 48 | 7.7 |
| 10 | Greece | 1,275 | 7.6 |
| Rank (women) | Country | Number | ASR/100,000 |
| World | 53,751 | 0.9 | |
| 1 | Mali | 212 | 4.2 |
| 2 | Burkina Faso | 208 | 3.8 |
| 3 | Malawi | 204 | 3.5 |
| 4 | Mozambique | 272 | 3.1 |
| 5 | Egypt | 1,322 | 3.0 |
| 6 | Madagascar | 178 | 2.3 |
| 7 | Comoros | 6 | 2.3 |
| 8 | Hungary | 336 | 2.2 |
| 9 | Denmark | 191 | 2.1 |
| 10 | Croatia | 177 | 2.1 |
There is evidence that the following are associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer: smoking, infection from the parasitic worm schistosoma haematobium, occupational exposure to metalworking fluids, and exposure to aromatic amines and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (chemicals used in the plastic and chemical industries).
There is also strong evidence that:
There is some evidence that:
> Read more about what can cause and what can protect against bladder cancer
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.
