Key Statistics for Prostate Cancer

How common is prostate cancer?

Other than skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men. The American Cancer Society’s estimates for prostate cancer in the United States for 2020 are:

About 191,930 new cases of prostate cancer

About 33,330 deaths from prostate cancer

Risk of prostate cancer

About 1 man in 9 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.

Prostate cancer is more likely to develop in older men and in African-American men. About 6 cases in 10 are diagnosed in men who are 65 or older, and it is rare in men under 40. The average age at diagnosis is about 66.

Deaths from prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer. About 1 man in 41 will die of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer can be a serious disease, but most men diagnosed with prostate cancer do not die from it. In fact, more than 3.1 million men in the United States who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point are still alive today.

For statistics related to survival, see Survival Rates for Prostate Cancer.

Visit our Cancer Statistics Center for more key statistics.