Lung Cancer Trends Brief: Mortality
View trends and gender, age, race/ethnicity, leading causes, and state differences in lung cancer mortality.Sex
- In 2021, 134,592 people died from lung cancer, or 22% of all cancer deaths. 71,549 of these deaths were among men and 62,955 among women.
- The lung cancer death in 2021 was 37% higher among men (37.4 per 100,000 population) than women (27.3 per 100,000).
- Death rates increased for both men and women from 1930 until peaking in 1990 at 91.1 per 100,000 for men and in 2002 at 41.6 per 100,000 for women.
- Since peaking, rates have decreased by 59% for men and 34% for women.
- Over the last 10 years, rates have decreased by 35% for men and 26% for women.
- Over the last 5 years, rates have decreased by 20% for men and 14% for women.
- Death rates were greater among men than women for all racial and ethnic groups.
- Death rates in 2016-2020 were highest among Black males (51.0 per 100,000 population) followed by white males (44.7 per 100,000 population; 14% lower) and American Indian/Alaska Native males (39.9 per 100,000 population; 28% lower).
- Death rates were much lower among Asian/Pacific Islander males, and lowest among Latino males.
- Death rates in 2016-2020 were highest among white females (32.8 per 100,000 population), followed by American Indian/Alaska Native females (29.9 per 100,000; 10% lower) and Black females (27.8 per 100,000 population; 18% lower).
- Death rates were much lower among Asian/Pacific Islander females, and lowest among Latina females.
Age
- Three quarters of lung cancer deaths in 2021 occurred among those ages 65 years of age and older, and 96% among those ages 55 years of age and older.
- The number of people dying from lung cancer increased with age until peaking at over 45,000 deaths in 2019 for those ages 65-74 years and then decreasing.
- The death rate from lung cancer in 2018 increased for every age group, peaking at 286.2 per 100,000 population among those ages 85 years and older.
Leading Causes
- Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death overall and among both men and women. The second leading cause of cancer death is prostate for men and breast for women.
State
- Lung cancer death rates in 2021 ranged from a low of 16.2 per 100,000 population in Utah to 50.0 per 100,000 population in West Virginia.
- Among men, lung cancer death rates in 2021 ranged from a low of 17.6 per 100,000 population in Utah to 60.4 per 100,000 population in Kentucky.
- Among women, lung cancer death rates in 2021 ranged from a low of 15.0 per 100,000 population in Utah to 45.2 per 100,000 population in West Virginia.