At 9.7%, Gallup polling has found the highest-ever percentage of U.S. adults who report receiving a cancer diagnosis, the analytics firm said Nov. 24.
The 2024-2025 figure is a significant increase from the 7% Gallup reported in 2008-2009. The percentage of adults reporting a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime has “increased at a greater pace over the past decade,” according to an article on the polling company’s website.
The cancer prevalence rate is measured in two-year averages, with the most recent results coming from 40,915 U.S. adults surveyed in 2024 and 2025. Gallup asked, “Has a doctor or nurse ever told you that you have cancer?”
New incidences for some cancer types are rising among younger adults and women, particularly breast cancer among adults younger than 50. National Institutes of Health researchers recently found increases in incidence of 14 cancer types and decreases in 19 types among adults younger than 50. Additionally, cancer mortality rates have fallen and people are living longer after diagnosis.
“Taken together, these results indicate that the slowly rising percentage of Americans who have had a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime is not a result of increasing rates of new cases,” Gallup wrote.
Lifetime cancer diagnoses are rising fastest among Black adults, men and Americans who are 65 or older.
“Overall, the cancer story in the U.S. is mixed with both good news and bad news,” Gallup wrote. “Mortality is falling and people are living longer post-diagnosis, but an aging population and an increasing percentage of those living post-removal or post-remission bring their own challenges to the U.S. healthcare system,” such as more medical surveillance and treatment for “millions of Americans [who] are no longer acutely ill.”
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