The U.S. recorded over 602,300 cancer deaths in 2020.  At about 182.8 deaths per 100,000 population, in 2020 cancer was the second leading cause of death in the United States, trailing only heart disease. 2020 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

State/Deaths	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
New York	32,955	19,336,776	170.4
Georgia	17,827	10,710,017	166.5
Washington	12,796	7,693,612	166.3
Idaho	3,004	1,826,913	164.4
California	59,778	39,368,078	151.8
Texas	42,142	29,360,759	143.5
Alaska	1,043	731,158	142.7
Colorado	8,252	5,807,719	142.1
District of Columbia	984	712,816	138.0
Utah	3,460	3,249,879	106.5
Total	182,241	118,797,727	153.4
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.