Colorectal cancer statistics

Latest colorectal cancer data

There were more than 1,926,400 new cases of colorectal cancer in 2022. The tables below give information about the countries with the highest rates, incidence and mortality from colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer age-standardised rates

Age-standardised rates (ASR) 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 developing/dying from cancer.

It is important to note that some countries have a high ASR but a low total number of cases, while other have a low ASR but a high number of cases. This is because ASRs are reported per 100,000 people. So, for example, an ASR of 10 in a population of 100,000 = 10 cases of cancer, but an ASR of 1 in a population of 10 million = 100 cases.

The following table gives the top 5 countries by ASR for colorectal cancer incidence for both sexes combined.

Country	New cases 2022	ASR
Denmark	6,878	48.1
Norway	5,617	45.3
Hungary	9,607	44.2
Netherlands	17,670	42.8
Croatia	4,190	41.1

The following tables give the top 5 countries by ASR for colorectal cancer incidence for men and women. 

Country	New cases in men 2022	ASR
Hungary	5,611	62.4
Croatia	2,498	55.9
Denmark	3,791	55.1
Portugal	6,092	50.8
Netherlands	10,090	50.1

Country	New cases in women 2022	ASR
Norway	2,806	43.6
Denmark	3,087	41.9
Netherlands	7,580	35.9
New Zealand	1,815	32.5
Australia	8,143	31.7

Colorectal cancer incidence (cases)

China, the US and Japan had the highest number of colorectal cancer cases in 2022.

The following 3 tables show the 10 countries with the highest colorectal cancer incidence in 2022 – 1st for both sexes, then men and women separately. We have also included the ASRs for each of these countries.

Rank	Country	Number	ASR/100,000
	World	1,926,425	18.4
1	China	517,106	20.1
2	US	160,186	27.0
3	Japan	145,756	36.6
4	Russia	83,693	29.4
5	India	70,038	4.9
6	Germany	62,544	25.7
7	Brazil	60,118	19.8
8	Italy	54,784	30.6
9	France (metropolitan)	51,636	32.1
10	UK	49,249	30.9

Rank	Country	New cases in men	ASR/100,000
	World	1,069,446	22.0
1	China	307,688	24.7
2	US	84,172	30.1
3	Japan	80,435	45.5
4	India	43,360	6.1
5	Russia	39,239	36.5
6	Germany	33,197	31.2
7	Brazil	30,164	22.4
8	Italy	29,225	36.0
9	France (metropolitan)	26,952	37.6
10	UK	26,593	35.1

Rank	Country	New cases in women	ASR/100,000
	World	856,979	15.2
1	China	209,148	15.7
2	US	76,014	24.2
3	Japan	65,321	28.5
4	Russia	44,454	25.1
5	Brazil	29,954	17.8
6	Germany	29,347	20.5
7	India	26,678	3.7
8	Italy	25,559	26.0
9	France (metropolitan)	24,684	27.4
10	UK	22,836	27.1

Colorectal cancer deaths

The following 3 tables show total global colorectal cancer mortality in 2022, followed by the figures for men and women. Hungary had the highest overall mortality rate from colorectal cancer in 2022, followed by Croatia

Rank	Country	Number	ASR/100,000
	World	904,019	8.1
1	China	240,010	8.6
2	Japan	60,743	11.3
3	US	54,614	7.9
4	Russia	41,447	13.3
5	India	40,993	2.9
6	Brazil	28,884	9.2
7	Germany	26,544	9.5
8	Italy	24,188	10.6
9	UK	22,868	11.8
10	France (metropolitan)	21,218	10.3

Rank	Country	Number in men	ASR/100,000
	World	499,755	9.9
1	China	142,599	10.9
2	Japan	31,065	14.2
3	US	29,651	9.5
4	India	25,447	3.6
5	Russia	19,563	17.8
6	Brazil	14,485	10.6
7	Germany	14.465	12.1
8	Italy	12,982	13.1
9	UK	12,187	13.9
10	Indonesia	11,741	8.8

Rank	Country	Number in women	ASR/100,000
	World	404,244	6.5
1	China	97,411	6.5
2	Japan	29,408	8.8
3	US	24,963	6.4
4	Russia	21,884	10.7
5	India	15,546	2.2
6	Brazil	14,399	8.1
7	Germany	12,079	7.3
8	Italy	11,206	8.6
9	UK	10,681	10.0
10	France (metropolitan)	9,889	8.1