Summary
This publication reports on newly diagnosed cancers registered in England during 2021. It includes this summary report showing key findings, spreadsheet tables with more detailed estimates, and a methodology document.
Cancer registrations (incidence) are provided by:
- Diagnosis (ICD-10 3-digit codes) by gender, age group, geographic region, deprivation and stage at diagnosis for selected cancer sites
- Diagnosis (ICD-10 4-digit code) by gender and age group
What's changed in this release
This publication normally provides estimates of rates of cancer incidence and mortality. Following the 2021 census, the populations (as denominators) needed to produce the rates of this publication are yet to be released at the level of detail needed for this publication.
This initial publication will contain counts of cancer diagnoses only. Counts of cancer mortality may be obtained at the Office for National Statistics website: www.nomisweb.co.uk
Estimates and counts of the rates of both cancer incidence and mortality for 2021 will be provided after the populations needed are released; this release of population data is expected between December 2023 and January 2024. This publication and its associated interactive web tool will be updated with these rates within 8 weeks of the publication of the populations.
A second release of populations is expected in Spring 2024 and will restate the populations between 2012 and 2020. These populations will be used to re-estimate the rates for the registrations of cancer diagnoses and deaths in this period. A supplement to this publication will be released and the period 2012 to 2020 in the associated interactive web tool will be updated within 8 weeks of the publication of these populations.
Key Facts
Cancer diagnoses returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021
There were 329,665 new cancer diagnoses in 2021, on average 903 a day, which is 2,491 more than 2019 and 40,912 more than 2020.
The Fry and Turnbull effect on prostate cancer diagnoses appears to have ended
There were 43,378 new prostate cancer diagnoses in 2021, which is 6,432 fewer diagnoses than in 2018 and 4,101 fewer diagnoses than in 2019. In 2017, there were 41,201 diagnoses of prostate cancer.
Bowel cancer is now the third most common cancer
For the first time this century, there were more diagnoses of bowel cancer (41,596) than lung cancer (39,635).
Previous releases of these statistics can be found at the Cancer registration statistics for England Collection link below.
Definition of “all cancers”
Unless otherwise stated, the numbers and rates presented in this bulletin for “all cancers” refer to cancers (malignant tumours) as defined by the tenth revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10), excluding non-melanoma skin cancer (ICD-10 C00 to C97 excluding C44). Please see the Data Quality and Methodology section for more detail.
Acknowledgments
This work uses data that has been provided by patients and collected by the NHS as part of their care and support. The data is collated, maintained and quality assured by the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service, which is part of NHS England.
Last edited: 16 May 2024 8:58 am
