Numbers and geography

Worldwide

According to the IARC  data for colorectal cancer in 2018 revealed:

• 1,026,215 new cases in men (17.8% of all cancer cases in men) - see
• 823,303 new cases in women (15.3% of all cancer cases in women)  - see

So a total of 1,849,518 new cases of colorectal cancer worldwide in 2018.

Worldwide, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer among men, and the second among women, right after breast cancer. It is also the 4th most fatal cancer to men and 3rd to women.

See also colorectal cancer estimated age-standardized rates of incident and death cases worldwide in 2018 (data from IARC )

The most recent data also showed important geographic differences in colorectal cancer incidence and mortality, especially between developed and developing nations. 

• 880,792 colorectal cancer deaths (9.2% of all cancer deaths, mostly in developed nations where the highest incidence of the disease is found).

Lowest mortality rates (percentage of dead in a population in a given area/period) were seen in western Africa, where incidence is one of the lowest. This is probably a result of the diet

Nevertheless, the number of deaths per number of patients is higher in less developed regions of the world due to their lack of means to treat the disease.