Skin cancer statistics

There are two main types of skin cancer: melanoma and non-melanoma. The most common non-melanoma tumours are basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.

Melanoma of the skin is the 19th most commonly occurring cancer in men and women. There were nearly 300,000 new cases in 2018. The top 20 countries with the highest rates of melanoma of the skin in 2018 are given in the tables below.

Non-melanoma skin cancer is the 5th most commonly occurring cancer in men and women, with over 1 million diagnoses worldwide in 2018, although this is likely to be an underestimate.

Skin cancer represents a particular challenge for estimating incidence for several reasons. There are multiple sub-types of skin cancer, which can present problems when collating data. For example, non-melanoma skin cancer is often not tracked by cancer registries, or registrations of this cancer are often incomplete because most cases are successfully treated via surgery or ablation.

In addition, many cases of cancer are not identified or recorded: some countries do not have cancer registries, regions of some countries have few or no records, records in countries suffering war or other disruption are bound to be incomplete and some people with cancer do not consult a physician.

Due to these factors, it is likely that the reported global incidence of skin cancer is an underestimate. Non-melanoma skin cancer is also usually omitted from comparative rankings of the most common cancers.

The Continuous Update Project Panel judged there is strong evidence that drinking water contaminated with arsenic increases the risk of skin cancer and greater adult attained height increases the risk of malignant melanoma.

There is strong evidence that beta-carotene (as high-dose supplements) has no substantial effect on the risk of non-melanoma skin cancer. There is some evidence that drinking coffee might decrease the risk of malignant melanoma in women and might decrease the risk of basal cell carcinoma in men and women.

There is some evidence that consuming alcoholic drinks might increase the risk of malignant melanoma and basal cell carcinoma; greater adult attained height might increase the risk of basal cell carcinoma; and greater birthweight might increase the risk of malignant melanoma.

> Read about all the evidence in our Third Expert Report

Age-standardised rates are used in the tables. This is 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.

Skin cancer rates: both sexes

Australia had the highest rate of melanoma in 2018, followed by New Zealand.

Skin cancer rates in men

Australia had the highest rate of melanoma in men in 2018, followed by New Zealand.

Skin cancer rates in women

Denmark had the highest rate of melanoma in women in 2018, followed by New Zealand.

The data quoted on these webpages come from the Global Cancer Observatory, owned by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and are used with permission. The incidence statistics for 2018 are projections calculated from cancer registry data collected before 2018. Full information on the methods used by IARC is available here.

Source: Bray F, Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Siegel RL, Torre LA, Jemal A. Global Cancer Statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin, in press. The online GLOBOCAN 2018 database is accessible at http://gco.iarc.fr/, as part of IARC’s Global Cancer Observatory.