Baby boomers living in rural and regional areas in Australia are at the greatest risk of developing bowel cancer, new research has revealed.

One in 12 people are at risk of the disease, the KPMG report said, and people between the ages of 50 and 79 should be tested every two years.

About 4,000 people die from bowel cancer every year and there are 15,000 new cases diagnosed annually.

Home test kits are sent in the mail and can also be obtained at pharmacies or from general practitioners.

Demographer Bernard Salt, who prepared the report, said his team examined the incidence of bowel cancer over the past decade.

"The baby boomer generation are right in the crosshairs as a disease," he said.

"We found even though there are more deaths in capital cities like Melbourne, the death rate is higher in rural and regional areas.

The data revealed bowel cancer rates were highest in rural and retirement communities where the 50-79 age group makes up to at least one-third to one-half of the local population.

The largest number of bowel cancer deaths are in the capital cities but the actual rate of deaths is highest in rural and regional centres.

Perth and Hobart had the highest bowel cancer death rates.

In rural and regional centres, where 44 per cent of the population or more is in this age group, bowel cancer is most lethal in areas including Victor Harbor in South Australia, Inglewood in Victoria, Tenterfield and Eurobodalla in New South Wales and Break O'Day in Tasmania.

The disease no-one wants to talk about

Participation in the national screening program is low.

Only about 36 per cent of the people who get a test kit in the mail do the test.

"Unfortunately with bowel cancer nobody likes to talk about it much," said Julien Wiggins, the chief executive of Bowel Cancer Australia.

"Early detection is the best way to survive the disease.

"Screening can save lives and we know that, it's an established fact."

In the meantime, he said we have to get over that reluctance of doing a test if we want to avoid bowel cancer.

"We've just got to get over the embarrassment and the messiness that's associated with it," he said.

"The bowels, everyone has them, that's the body's plumbing.

"Whether we like it or not it's just one of the routines that we have to go through in life.

"As much as we eat, we also produce waste."