Denmark has topped the highest overall cancer rate in a world ranking of cancer cases by the World Cancer Research Foundation.
James Meikle writes today:
"Decades of warnings about the dangers of smoking appear to be having an effect, with the UK placed a relatively low 22nd in a world league of highest cancer rates."
The rankings, published today, have placed the UK male rate at 33rd in the world with 280 cases per 100,000 people. Female cancer rates in the UK are however 12th highest with a reported 260.5 cases per 100,000.
Denmark has been ranked with having the highest female and overall cancer rate although the highest male rate has been recorded in France.
The ten worst countries and the UK cancer rate, per 100,000 of the population Photograph: graphic
WCRF state that the highest rates have been noted in 'high-income countries' and put this down to a variety of reasons; "This is likely to be partly because high-income countries are better at diagnosing and recording new cases of cancer. But a large part of the reason is also that high-income countries tend to have higher levels of obesity and alcohol consumption, and lower levels of physical activity."
The latest figures are adjusted, taking age into account to allow a comparison with the world's population. This is done because cancer is more common in older people, and countries with an ageing population thus tend to have higher rates.
Recently we published mortality statistics for England and Wales including figures for cancer. How do they compare with these latest statistics?
We have put together the rankings into a spreadsheet to download along with the rankings of female breast cancer worldwide. What can you do with this data?
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