More than 602,300 Americans died of cancer in 2020, making it the second leading cause of death in the United States, after only heart disease. An examination of 2020 state-level data from the National Center for Health Statistics revealed the following to be the:

Ten States with the Highest Cancer Death Rates

State/Deaths	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
West Virginia	4,725	1,784,787	264.7
Maine	3,432	1,350,141	254.2
Kentucky	10,181	4,477,251	227.4
Vermont	1,400	623,347	224.6
Mississippi	6,582	2,966,786	221.9
Pennsylvania	27,955	12,783,254	218.7
Delaware	2,141	986,809	217.0
Arkansas	6,496	3,030,522	214.4
Ohio	24,863	11,693,217	212.6
Alabama	10,456	4,921,532	212.5
Total	98,231	44,617,646	220.2
U.S.	602,350	329,484,123	182.8

(*) number of cancer deaths per 100,000 population

Source: CDC Wonder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2020 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2021. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2020, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on November 25,2022

related commentary: Regional Cancer Death Rates in the U.S.