Key Statistics for Colorectal Cancer

Excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women in the United States.

How common is colorectal cancer?

The American Cancer Society’s estimates for the number of colorectal cancers in the United States for 2025 are:

• About 107,320 new cases of colon cancer (54,510 in men and 52,810 in women)
• About 46,950 new cases of rectal cancer (27,950 in men and 19,000 in women)

The rate of people being diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer has dropped overall since the mid-1980s, mainly because more people are getting screened and changing their lifestyle-related risk factors. From 2012 to 2021, incidence rates dropped by about 1% each year. But this downward trend is mostly in older adults. In people younger than 50 years of age, rates have increased by 2.4% per year from 2012 to 2021.

Lifetime risk of colorectal cancer

Overall, the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is about 1 in 24 for men and 1 in 26 for women. However, each person’s risk might be higher or lower than this, depending on their risk factors for colorectal cancer.

Deaths from colorectal cancer

In the United States, colorectal cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men and the fourth leading cause in women, but it’s the second most common cause of cancer deaths when numbers for men and women are combined. It’s expected to cause about 52,900 deaths during 2025.

The death rate from colorectal cancer has been dropping in older adults for several decades. There are a number of likely reasons for this. One is that colorectal polyps are now being found more often by screening and removed before they can develop into cancers. Screening also results in many colorectal cancers being found earlier, when they are likely to be easier to treat. In addition, treatments for colorectal cancer have improved over the last few decades. In people under 55, however, death rates have been increasing about 1% per year since the mid-2000s.

Statistics related to survival among people with colorectal cancer are discussed in Survival Rates for Colorectal Cancer.