Ten States with the Lowest Cancer Death Rates

The U.S. recorded over 599,600 cancer deaths in 2019.  At about 182.7 deaths per 100,000 population, in 2019 cancer was the second leading cause of death in the United States, trailing only heart disease. State-level data from the National Center for Health Statistics, a unit of the CDC, revealed the following to be the ten states with the lowest cancer death rates in 2019:

State/Deaths	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
AZ	12,503	7,278,717	171.8
WA	12,960	7,614,893	170.2
GA	17,756	10,617,423	167.2
ID	2,928	1,787,065	163.8
CA	59,512	39,512,223	150.6
DC	1,025	705,749	145.2
TX	41,489	28,995,881	143.1
AK	1,021	731,545	139.6
CO	7,986	5,758,736	138.7
UT	3,289	3,205,958	102.6
Total	160,469	106,208,190	151.1
U.S.	599,601	328,239,523	182.7

(*) 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 1999-2019 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2020. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2019, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on December 6, 2021

related commentary: U.S. Cancer Deaths by Region