There are around 220 cancer deaths in children every year in the UK, with around 95 deaths in girls and around 130 deaths in boys (2021-2023).
View more detailed gender stats on our dashboard for Children’s cancer
Children's cancer mortality rates in the UK are highest in the under-fives age group, with around 1 in 3 (34%) of all new cancer deaths occurring in this age group (2021-2023).
Childhood cancer usually has no known cause. For most cancer types incidence increases with age, which largely reflects cell DNA damage accumulating over time. Damage can result from biological processes or from exposure to risk factors.
Children's cancer mortality rates have decreased by a third (33%) in the UK since the early 2000s and rates have decreased by around a seventh (15%) in the last decade (2021-2023).
View more detailed trends stats on our dashboard for Children’s cancer
Go to local cancer statistics - search profiles by area, constituency or health board in the UK.
Go to devolved nations overview for an overview of Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
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We are grateful to the many organisations across the UK which collect, analyse, and share the data which we use, and to the patients and public who consent for their data to be used.
Find out more about the sources which are essential for our statistics
Data were provided by the Office for National Statistics on request, November 2019. Similar data can be found here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths.
Data were provided by Pubic Health Scotland on request, October 2019. Similar data can be found here.
Data were provided by the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry on request, June 2020. Similar data can be found here.
Public Health England. Childhood Cancer Mortality in the UK and Internationally, 2005-2010.
Stiller C (Ed.) Childhood cancer in Britain: incidence, survival and mortality. Oxford University Press, 2007.
England and Wales data were from the Office for National Statistics, accessed December 2022: Nomis mortality statistics by underlying cause, sex and age.
Scotland data were from the National Records of Scotland, accessed December 2022: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/
Northern Ireland data were from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, accessed December 2022: Registrar General Annual Report 2021 Cause of Death
Calculated by the Cancer Intelligence Team at Cancer Research UK, 2021, based on method set out in Siegel R, Ward E, Brawley O, Jemal A., Cancer statistics, 2011: the impact of eliminating socioeconomic and racial disparities on premature cancer deaths. CA Cancer J Clin. 2011 Jul-Aug;61(4):212-36.
