Cancer mortality
Annual update to 2024 planned revision

About this release

This planned revision by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides information on deaths from cancer in Scotland, including registrations up to the 31 December 2024. Within this publication, data is provided on both the number of deaths caused by cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) and the overall risk of dying from the disease within a population, expressed as European age-sex standardised rates (EASR). EASRs allow for comparisons over time between populations by accounting for differences in age and sex structure using a standard European population.

The European Standard Population is usually preferred because it is more representative of the age structure of European populations and allows direct comparison with other UK and European health statistics. The World Standard Population has a much younger age distribution than Scotland or most European countries. Because cancer incidence and mortality are concentrated in older age groups, applying world standard weights generally produces lower age-standardised rates than applying European weights.

Following the publication of 2024 small-area population estimates by the National Records of Scotland (NRS), this report has been revised to include analysis of cancer mortality by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile. These are five equal-sized groups, each containing approximately 20% of Scottish data zones ranked from the most (quintile 1) to least deprived (quintile 5). All previously published results remain unchanged, with the revision limited to the addition of deprivation analyses.

Main points

• In 2024 the European Age Standardised Rate (EASR), or risk of dying from cancer in Scotland, decreased by 12.1% compared to 2015 (from 328.5 to 288.9 per 100,000 population respectively).
• However, despite this reduction, the number of deaths due to cancer has increased by 2.1% (to 16,352 from 16,011 in 2015). This largely reflects an increase in the proportion of older age groups within the population, and the fact that cancer is more common among older people. Two-thirds (70%) of all cancer deaths occurred in people aged seventy and over, an increase from 66% in 2015.
• The average age at death increased between 2000 and 2024, rising from 70.9 to 74.4 years for males, and from 72.4 to 74.2 for females. This shift reflects changes towards types of cancers that are diagnosed at older ages, and better survival as a result of earlier cancer detection, more effective treatment and improvements in overall life expectancy.
• Lung, colorectal (bowel), prostate and breast cancers together account for 46% of all cancer deaths in Scotland, this is similar to previous years.
• Lung cancer remained the most common cause of cancer death overall; 3,651 in 2024 (EASR of 62.8 per 100,000 population), accounting for a fifth (22.3%) of all cancer deaths in Scotland. Most of these could be avoided by eliminating smoking (NHSinform.scot).

Analysis of cancer mortality by SIMD

• People living in more deprived areas of Scotland face a higher risk of death from cancer (EASR of 397.2 per 100,000 in the most deprived quintile vs. 227.7 per 100,000 in the least deprived quintile, for combined 2020-2024 period). This is partly due to:
  • a greater likelihood of developing cancers with lower survival rates, such as lung cancer.
  • having greater comorbidity (more than one medical condition e.g. a patient could have lung cancer and heart disease), and therefore being unable to receive some more aggressive curative treatments,
  • and partly because screening uptake for breast, bowel, and cervical cancers is lower in these groups. Screening helps identify cancers at an earlier stage, when treatment is more
• Between 2015 and 2024, the cancer mortality EASR fell in both the most and least deprived areas of Scotland. However, the reduction was smaller in the most deprived areas, decreasing by 5.6% (from 418.1 to 394.9 per 100,000), compared with a larger 14.5% decrease in the least deprived areas (from 259.4 to 221.8). This indicates a widening inequality in cancer mortality between deprivation groups.

Line chart showing age-adjusted rates per 100,000 population by year of death registration (2011–2024), stratified by deprivation quintile (1 = most deprived to 5 = least deprived). Five lines are displayed: quintile 1 (purple), quintile 2 (dotted grey), quintile 3 (dashed grey), quintile 4 (dash-dot grey), and quintile 5 (blue with markers).

Close

Trends in cancer mortality EASR¹ for all cancers² by deprivation quintile³ in Scotland, 2011 to 2024

Source: National Records of Scotland (NRS)

1. EASR: European age- and sex-standardised mortality rate per 100,000 population.
2. All cancers excluding non-melanoma skin cancer (ICD-10 C00-C97 excl. C44).
3. Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2020 quintile.

Background

This publication uses death registration data supplied by National Records of Scotland (NRS). This release includes summary tables presenting information by cancer type, age group, sex, SIMD, Regional Cancer Network, NHS Board, and local authority. When using this publication, it is more informative to examine trends in mortality over a number of years, rather than focussing on a single year of mortality. In the case of rare cancers, striking changes from one year to the next are likely to reflect random fluctuation caused by small numbers of deaths and may be misleading.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be Winter 2026.