Mesothelioma mortality statistics

Deaths

Deaths from mesothelioma, 2014, UK

 

Proportion of all deaths

Percentage mesothelioma is of total cancer deaths, 2014, UK

Age

Peak rate of mesothelioma deaths, 2012-2014, UK

 

Trend over time

Mesothelioma mortality rates have increased by 887% since the early 1970s, GB

Mesothelioma is the 16th most common cause of cancer death in the UK (2014), accounting for 2% of all cancer deaths.[1-3] In males, it is the 13th most common cause of cancer death in the UK (2% of all male cancer deaths), whilst it is the 20th most common cause of cancer death in females in the UK (less than 1% of all female cancer deaths).[1-3]

In 2014, there were 2,567 mesothelioma deaths in the UK: 2,143 (83%) in males and 424 (17%) in females, giving a male:female ratio of around 51:10.[1-3] The crude mortality rate Open a glossary item shows that there are 7 mesothelioma deaths for every 100,000 males in the UK, and 1 for every 100,000 females.

The European age-standardised mortality rates Open a glossary item (AS rates) are significantly lower in Scotland and Northern Ireland compared with England for males, while rates are significantly lower in Wales and Northern Ireland compared with England for females.[1-3]

Mesothelioma (C45), Number of Deaths, Crude and European Age-Standardised (AS) Mortality Rates per 100,000 Population, UK, 2014

England Wales Scotland Northern Ireland UK
Male Deaths 1,858 104 146 35 2,143
Crude Rate 6.9 6.8 5.6 3.9 6.7
AS Rate 8.6 7.5 6.8 6.0 8.3
AS Rate - 95% LCL 8.2 6.1 5.7 4.0 8.0
AS Rate - 95% UCL 9.0 9.0 7.9 7.9 8.7
Female Deaths 378 12 31 3 424
Crude Rate 1.4 0.8 1.1 0.3 1.3
AS Rate 1.4 0.7 1.1 0.4 1.3
AS Rate - 95% LCL 1.3 0.3 0.7 -0.0 1.2
AS Rate - 95% UCL 1.6 1.1 1.5 0.8 1.5
Persons Deaths 2,236 116 177 38 2,567
Crude Rate 4.1 3.8 3.3 2.1 4.0
AS Rate 4.6 3.7 3.6 2.6 4.4
AS Rate - 95% LCL 4.4 3.0 3.0 1.8 4.2
AS Rate - 95% UCL 4.8 4.4 4.1 3.4 4.6

95% LCL and 95% UCL are the 95% lower and upper confidence limits Open a glossary item around the AS Rate Open a glossary item

Mesothelioma mortality rates throughout Great Britain vary significantly between health boundaries. The highest rates tend to be in areas which contain ports and dockyards, such as West Dunbartonshire in Scotland and Barrow-in-Furness in England, further supporting the link between mesothelioma and past exposure to asbestos in the shipbuilding industry.[4,5]

See also

Find out more about the counting and coding of this data

Mesothelioma incidence statistics by sex and UK region

Cancer mortality statistics for common cancers in the UK

References

  1. Data were provided by the Office for National Statistics on request, November 2015. Similar data can be found here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths. 
  2. Data were provided by ISD Scotland on request, November 2015. Similar data can be found here: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Cancer/Publications/index.asp. 
  3. Data were provided by the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry on request, November 2015. Similar data can be found here: http://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/nicr/.
  4. Health and Safety Executive. Mesothelioma in Great Britain 2013. Mesothelioma mortality in  Great Britain 1968-2011. Merseyside: HSE; 2013.
  5. Health and Safety Executive. Mesothelioma Mortality in Great Britain: Analyses by Geographical  Area and Occupation 2005. Merseyside: HSE; 2008.
Last reviewed:

Mesothelioma mortality is strongly related to age, with the highest mortality rates being in older males and females. In the UK in 2012-2014, on average each year more than half (52%) of deaths were in people aged 75 and over.[1-3]

Age-specific mortality rates rise sharply in males and gradually in females from around age 45-49, peaking in the 80-84 age group for males, and in the 85-89 age group for females, and subsequently dropping. Mortality rates are significantly higher for males than for females aged 55-59 and over and this gap is widest at the age of 90+, when the male:female ratio of age-specific  rates (to account for the different proportions of males to females in each age group) is around 96:10.[1-3]

Mesothelioma (C45), Average Number of Deaths per Year and Age-Specific Mortality Rates, UK, 2012-2014

For most cancer types, mortality by age largely reflects incidence and survival by age, e.g. typically, higher incidence and lower survival in older people results in higher mortality in older people.

See also

Find out more about the counting and coding of this data

Mesothelioma incidence statistics by age

Cancer mortality statistics by age for all cancers

References

  1. Data were provided by the Office for National Statistics on request, November 2015. Similar data can be found here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths. 
  2. Data were provided by ISD Scotland on request, November 2015. Similar data can be found here: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Cancer/Publications/index.asp​. 
  3. Data were provided by the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry on request, November 2015. Similar data can be found here: http://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/nicr/.
Last reviewed:

Mesothelioma mortality rates have increased by 887% in Great Britain since the early 1970s.[1-3] This includes a larger overall increases for males than females.

For males, European Age-Standardised (AS) Open a glossary item mortality rates increased by 902% between 1971-1973 and 2012-2014. For females, rates increased by 692% in this period. 

Over the last decade in the UK (between 2003-2005 and 2012-2014), mesothelioma AS mortality rates have increased by 14% for males and females combined, with a smaller increase in males (10%) than in females (29%).

Mesothelioma (C45), European Age-Standardised Mortality Rates, Great Britain, 1971-2014

Trends in mesothelioma mortality correlate with the rise and fall of asbestos exposure in the UK in the 20th century.[2] It is predicted that the number of mesothelioma deaths in Great Britain will peak around 2017-2018 and decline rapidly thereafter.[1]

Mesothelioma mortality rates have increased overall in all of the broad adult age groups in Great Britain since the early 1970s.[1-3] The largest increase has been in males aged 80+, where rates have increased by around 27 fold between 1971-1973 and 2012-2014.

Mesothelioma (C45), European Age-Standardised Mortality Rates, By Age, Males, Great Britain, 1971-2014

Mesothelioma mortality rates have increased overall in most of the broad adult age groups in Great Britain since the early 1970s but have remained stable in females aged 25-49.[1-3] The largest increase has been in females aged 70-79, where rates have increased by almost 16 fold between 1971-1973 and 2012-2014.

Mesothelioma (C45), European Age-Standardised Mortality Rates, By Age, Females, Great Britain, 1971-2014

Mortality trends over time data are taken from the mesothelioma register as it is the most reliable source of information on mesothelioma mortality.[3]

See also

Find out more about the counting and coding of this data

Mesothelioma incidence trends over time

Cancer mortality statistics for common cancers in the UK

References

  1. Health and Safety Executive. Mesothelioma in Great Britain 2016. Mesothelioma mortality in Great Britain 1968-2014. Merseyside: HSE; 2016.
  2. Health and Safety Executive. Mesothelioma Mortality in Great Britain: Analyses by Geographical Area and Occupation 2005. Merseyside: HSE; 2008.
  3. McElvenny DM, Darnton AJ, Price MJ, Hodgson JT. Mesothelioma mortality in Great Britain from 1968 to 2001. Occup Med (Lond) 2005;55(2):79-87.
Last reviewed:

Mesothelioma mortality rates are projected to fall by 46% in the UK between 2014 and 2035, to 3 deaths per 100,000 people by 2035.[1] This includes a larger decrease for males than for females.

For males, mesothelioma European age-standardised (AS) Open a glossary item mortality rates in the UK are projected to fall by 49% between 2014 and 2035, to 5 deaths per 100,000 by 2035.[1] For females, rates are projected to fall by 36% between 2014 and 2035, to 1 death per 100,000 by 2035.[1]

Mesothelioma (C45), Observed and Projected Age-Standardised Mortality Rates, by Sex, UK, 1979-2035

Download the data table (xls) or email Stats.Team@cancer.org.uk for powerpoint
 

It is projected that 2,298 deaths from mesothelioma (1,876 in males, 422 in females) will occur in the UK in 2035.

See also

Find out how these projections were calculated

Mortality trends over time for mesothelioma

Projections of mortality for all cancers combined

Download the projections data table

References

  1. Smittenaar CR, Petersen KA, Stewart K, Moitt N. Cancer Incidence and Mortality Projections in the UK Until 2035. Brit J Cancer 2016.

About this data

Data is for: UK, 1979-2014 (observed), 2015-2035 (projected), ICD-10 C45

Projections are based on observed incidence and mortality rates and therefore implicitly include changes in cancer risk factors, diagnosis and treatment. It is not possible to assess the statistical significance of changes between 2014 (observed) and 2035 (projected) figures. Confidence intervals are not calculated for the projected figures. Projections are by their nature uncertain because unexpected events in future could change the trend. It is not sensible to calculate a boundary of uncertainty around these already uncertain point estimates. Changes are described as 'increase' or 'decrease' if there is any difference between the point estimates.

More on projections methodology

Last reviewed:

There is no evidence for an association between mesothelioma mortality and deprivation for either males or females in England.[1] England-wide data for 2007-2011 show European age-standardised mortality rates are similar for both males and females living in the most deprived areas compared with the least deprived.[1]

Mesothelioma (C45), European Age-Standardised Mortality Rates by Deprivation Quintile, England, 2007-2011

The estimated deprivation gradient  in mesothelioma mortality between people living in the most and least deprived areas in England has not changed in the period 2002-2011.[1]

See also

Find out more about the counting and coding of this data

Deprivation gradient for cancer mortality

Deprivation gradient in Mesothelioma incidence

Socio-economic variation in cancer mortality for Scotland

Socio-economic variation in cancer mortality for Wales

Socio-economic variation in cancer mortality for Northern Ireland

References

  1. Cancer Research UK and National Cancer Intelligence Network. Cancer by deprivation in England: Incidence, 1996-2010, Mortality, 1997-2011. London: NCIN; 2014.

About this data

Data is for: UK, 2007-2011, ICD-10 C45

Deprivation gradient statistics were calculated using mortality data for 2007-2011. The deprivation quintiles were calculated using the Income domain scores from the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) from the following years: 2004, 2007 and 2010. Full details on the data and methodology can be found in the Cancer by Deprivation in England NCIN report.

Last reviewed:

Cancer stats explained

See information and explanations on terminology used for statistics and reporting of cancer, and the methods used to calculate some of our statistics.

Cancer stats explained

Citation

You are welcome to reuse this Cancer Research UK content for your own work.
Credit us as authors by referencing Cancer Research UK as the primary source. Suggested styles are:

Web content: Cancer Research UK, full URL of the page, Accessed [month] [year].
Publications: Cancer Research UK ([year of publication]), Name of publication, Cancer Research UK.
Graphics (when reused unaltered): Credit: Cancer Research UK.
Graphics (when recreated with differences): Based on a graphic created by Cancer Research UK.

When Cancer Research UK material is used for commercial reasons, we encourage a donation to our life-saving research.
Send a cheque payable to Cancer Research UK to: Cancer Research UK, Angel Building, 407 St John Street, London, EC1V 4AD or

Donate online

Rate this page:

Currently rated: 1.4 out of 5 based on 9 votes
Thank you!
We've recently made some changes to the site, tell us what you think

Share this page