Cancer Registration Statistics, England 2020

Figure 10 shows that in 2020 the cancer mortality rate increased with age. From the age of 55, the cancer mortality rates were higher for males than for females.

With increasing age, the gap in cancer mortality rates between males and females also increased, with the biggest gap in those aged 90 years and over where the rate was almost double for males (3,631 per 100,000 people) compared to females (1,872 per 100,000 people).

The changes in age-specific mortality rates between 2019 and 2020 reflect the changes in the number of registered cancer deaths for each age group, gender and cancer site. The age-specific mortality rates that increased between 2019 and 2020 for all cancers for males were for the ages 10 to 4, 15 to 19, 40 to 49 and 55 to 59. The age-specific mortality rates that increased between 2019 and 2020 for all cancers for females were for the ages 10 to 19, 25 to 29, 40 to 44, 60 to 69 and 75 to 79. All these increases were small numerically and proportionately. All the other age-specific mortality rates for all cancers fell between 2019 and 2020 reflecting the changes in the number of registered cancer deaths for each age group and gender (Figure 11).