Lung cancer is the most common type of cancer in the world. In 2022, it accounted for 2.5 million new cases globally, representing 12.4% of all cancer diagnoses. It narrowly edged out breast cancer, which had 2.3 million new cases (11.6%), followed by colorectal cancer at 1.9 million cases (9.6%).
That said, the answer shifts depending on where you live, your sex, and whether non-melanoma skin cancers are counted. Here’s how the numbers break down.
The Top 5 Cancers Worldwide
Based on the most recent global estimates from 2022, the five most commonly diagnosed cancers are:
- Lung: 2.5 million new cases (12.4%)
- Breast: 2.3 million new cases (11.6%)
- Colorectal: 1.9 million new cases (9.6%)
- Prostate: 1.5 million new cases (7.3%)
- Stomach: 970,000 new cases (4.9%)
Lung cancer only reclaimed the top spot recently. In 2020, breast cancer overtook lung cancer for the first time as the most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide. By 2022, lung cancer had moved back to number one.
Why Skin Cancer Often Doesn’t Make the List
If you’ve heard that skin cancer is the most common cancer, you’re not wrong in a practical sense. Non-melanoma skin cancers, primarily basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas, affect roughly 6.1 million adults per year in the United States alone. Globally, these cancers would dwarf every other type on the list.
The reason they’re typically left out of rankings is simple: cancer registries don’t normally track them. They’re so common, so frequently treated in outpatient settings, and so rarely fatal that most countries don’t report them alongside other cancers. When organizations like the WHO publish global cancer statistics, non-melanoma skin cancer sometimes appears (it ranked fifth in one WHO breakdown at 1.2 million cases), but even those numbers are considered severe undercounts.
Most Common Cancers in the United States
The ranking looks different in the U.S. than it does globally. Projected estimates for 2025 put breast cancer and prostate cancer nearly tied at the top, with about 313,500 new breast cancer cases and 312,900 new prostate cancer cases. Lung cancer comes in third at roughly 248,500 cases, followed by colorectal cancer at about 152,800.
The difference from global rankings reflects screening patterns, smoking rates, and population demographics. Prostate and breast cancers are detected at high rates in the U.S. because of widespread screening programs, which catch many slow-growing tumors that might never be diagnosed in countries with less access to screening.
Most Common Cancers by Sex
The picture changes significantly when you separate the numbers by sex. For women worldwide, breast cancer dominates. It’s the single most diagnosed cancer in women across virtually every country, regardless of income level. In low-income countries, breast cancer accounts for nearly one in four female cancer diagnoses (24.5%), with cervical cancer close behind at 19.7%.
For men globally, lung cancer and prostate cancer compete for the top position. In the United States, prostate cancer is far and away the leader for men, making up about 16% of all new cancer cases in 2026 projections. In low-income countries, prostate cancer also leads among men at 15.2% of cases, followed by liver cancer (9.3%) and colorectal cancer (7.7%).
How Rankings Shift in Low-Income Countries
Cancer patterns in low-income countries differ from wealthier nations in revealing ways. Breast cancer still ranks first overall, but cervical cancer rises to second, a position it doesn’t hold in high-income countries where HPV vaccination and screening have dramatically reduced cases. Liver cancer and stomach cancer also rank higher in low-income settings, driven by higher rates of hepatitis infection and other risk factors tied to limited healthcare access.
Lung cancer, the global leader, drops further down the list in low-income countries. This partly reflects lower historical smoking rates in some regions and partly reflects that people in these countries may die of other causes before reaching the ages when lung cancer typically develops.
Most Common vs. Most Deadly
Being the most commonly diagnosed cancer also makes lung cancer the deadliest. It caused 1.82 million deaths in 2022, more than double the next cancer on the mortality list. The full death toll ranking looks quite different from the incidence ranking:
- Lung: 1.82 million deaths
- Colorectal: 904,000 deaths
- Liver: 760,000 deaths
- Breast: 666,000 deaths
- Stomach: 660,000 deaths
Notice that prostate cancer, the fourth most diagnosed cancer, doesn’t appear in the top five for deaths. Many prostate cancers grow slowly and are caught early, so a large number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer die of something else entirely. Liver cancer, on the other hand, doesn’t crack the top four for new diagnoses but ranks third for deaths because it’s often found late and is difficult to treat.
In the United States specifically, lung cancer causes about 20% of all cancer deaths. Colorectal cancer is second, and pancreatic cancer ranks third for mortality despite being far less commonly diagnosed. Pancreatic cancer is particularly lethal because it rarely produces symptoms until it has spread.
Age and Cancer Risk
Cancer is overwhelmingly a disease of aging. The median age at diagnosis across all cancers is 67 years. Incidence rates climb steadily from fewer than 26 cases per 100,000 people under age 20 to over 1,000 per 100,000 in people 60 and older.
The major cancers all tend to appear later in life. The median age at diagnosis is 63 for breast cancer, 66 for colorectal cancer, 68 for prostate cancer, and 71 for lung cancer. In children and adolescents, the cancer landscape is entirely different. Bone cancer is most frequently diagnosed in people under 20, with about one-quarter of all cases occurring in that age group. Brain and nervous system cancers account for 11% of pediatric diagnoses, compared to just 1% of cancers overall.
Colorectal Cancer Is Rising in Younger Adults
One of the most concerning recent trends is the rise of colorectal cancer in people under 50. Rates of early-onset colorectal cancer continue to climb both in the United States and globally. The American Cancer Society now identifies colorectal cancer as the leading cause of cancer death in Americans under 50.
Part of what makes this trend so dangerous is delayed diagnosis. Younger patients with colorectal cancer face diagnostic delays of about six months on average, and three out of four are diagnosed with advanced disease, when survival odds are worst. The reasons behind the rise aren’t fully understood, though obesity, dietary patterns, and changes in the gut microbiome are all under investigation. This shift prompted the U.S. to lower the recommended age for colorectal cancer screening from 50 to 45 in 2021.