Denmark has topped the highest overall cancer rate in a world ranking of cancer cases by the World Cancer Research Foundation.

James Meikle writes today:

"Decades of warnings about the dangers of smoking appear to be having an effect, with the UK placed a relatively low 22nd in a world league of highest cancer rates."

The rankings, published today, have placed the UK male rate at 33rd in the world with 280 cases per 100,000 people. Female cancer rates in the UK are however 12th highest with a reported 260.5 cases per 100,000.

Denmark has been ranked with having the highest female and overall cancer rate although the highest male rate has been recorded in France.

WCRF state that the highest rates have been noted in 'high-income countries' and put this down to a variety of reasons; "This is likely to be partly because high-income countries are better at diagnosing and recording new cases of cancer. But a large part of the reason is also that high-income countries tend to have higher levels of obesity and alcohol consumption, and lower levels of physical activity."

The latest figures are adjusted, taking age into account to allow a comparison with the world's population. This is done because cancer is more common in older people, and countries with an ageing population thus tend to have higher rates.

Recently we published mortality statistics for England and Wales including figures for cancer. How do they compare with these latest statistics?

We have put together the rankings into a spreadsheet to download along with the rankings of female breast cancer worldwide. What can you do with this data?

Data summary

All cancer rates by country - cases per 100,000 people Click headings to sort Ignore Country Overall rate Male rate Female rate 1 Denmark 326.1 334.7 325.3 2 Ireland 317 355.9 285.1 3 Australia 314.1 360.5 274.4 4 New Zealand 309.2 337.6 287.1 5 Belgium 306.8 351.3 275.7 6 France (metropolitan) 300.4 360.6 254.9 7 USA 300.2 335 274.4 8 Norway 299.1 338.4 270.3 9 Canada 296.6 325.9 275 10 Czech Republic 295 348.8 259.1 11 Israel 288.3 303.7 280.4 12 The Netherlands 286.8 306.3 276.5 13 Luxembourg 284 324 254.4 14 Hungary 282.9 352.3 235.6 15 Iceland 282.2 305.5 265.6 16 Germany 282.1 330.7 245.7 17 Uruguay 280.3 354.4 230.7 18 Italy 274.3 310 251.6 19 French Polynesia 269.6 289.7 256.8 20 Switzerland 269.3 313.2 236 21 Slovenia 267.9 319.6 232.9 22 United Kingdom 266.9 280 260.5 23 Croatia 263.1 315 229.3 24 Republic of Korea 262.4 309.4 234.4 25 Slovakia 260.6 320.2 223.4 26 Sweden 252.1 269.6 241.2 27 Finland 249.8 271.3 239.8 28 Lithuania 244.4 316.5 207.8 29 Chinese Taipei 244.1 282.3 208.5 30 Mongolia 242.2 281.5 210.8 31 Spain 241.4 309.9 187 32 France (Martinique) 234.9 315.4 33 Austria 232.7 275.4 200.6 34 Estonia 230.4 285.7 203.7 35 Latvia 230.4 304 193.4 36 FYR Macedonia 225.1 262.1 196.5 37 Bulgaria 224.7 252.9 206.6 38 Portugal 223.2 266.8 190.8 39 Poland 222.9 280.5 185.5 40 Serbia 218.9 238.5 205.2 41 New Caledonia 218.5 208.4 42 Belarus 213.1 269 186.7 43 Malta 211.4 199.7 44 Barbados 207.9 251.3 189.1 45 Armenia 207.5 260.4 46 Argentina 206.2 193 47 Romania 205.1 240.6 48 Montenegro 204.3 185.2 49 Albania 202.8 196.6 50 South African Republic 202 254.8 51 Japan 247.3 52 Russian Federation 247.1 53 France (Guadeloupe) 245.9 54 France (La Reunion) 252.9 55 Puerto Rico 253.6 56 Honduras 181.6 57 Jamaica 205.1 58 Uganda 186.8 59 Singapore 188.4

• DATA: download the full spreadsheet

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