Cancer accounted for 602,350 deaths in the United States in 2020.  In the twelve-state Southeastern U.S., 171,979 deaths were attributed to cancer in 2020, about 28.6% of all cancer deaths in the United States that year.  At 201.0 deaths per 100,000 population, the Southeastern U.S. had a cancer death rate in 2020 that was nearly 10% higher than the national average, giving it the second highest regional cancer death rate in the country.  Further review of data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics provides the following state-level details about cancer death rates in the Southeastern U.S.:

Cancer Death Rates in the Southeastern U.S.

State	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Alabama	10,456	4,921,532	212.5
Arkansas	6,496	3,030,522	214.4
Florida	45,800	21,733,312	210.7
Georgia	17,827	10,710,017	166.5
Kentucky	10,181	4,477,251	227.4
Louisiana	9,195	4,645,318	197.9
Mississippi	6,582	2,966,786	221.9
North Carolina	19,996	10,600,823	188.6
South Carolina	10,786	5,218,040	206.7
Tennessee	14,436	6,886,834	209.6
Virginia	15,499	8,590,563	180.4
West Virginia	4,725	1,784,787	264.7
Region	171,979	85,565,785	201.0
U.S.	602,350	329,484,123	182.8

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

Report Period: 2020

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 June 4, 2022