Deaths attributable to cancer totaled 602,350 in the United States in 2020.  The four-state Southwestern U.S. accounted for 66,835 of those cancer deaths, about 11% of all cancer deaths in the United States that year.  At 155.9 deaths per 100,000 population, the Southwestern U.S. had the second lowest regional cancer death rate in 2020.  Only the Rocky Mountain region recorded a lower cancer death rate that year. Further review of state-level data from the National Center for Health Statistics reveals the following about cancer death rates in the Southwestern U.S.:

Cancer Death Rates in the Southwestern U.S.

State	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Arizona	12,676	7,421,401	170.8
New Mexico	3,649	2,106,319	173.2
Oklahoma	8,368	3,980,783	210.2
Texas	42,142	29,360,759	143.5
Region	66,835	42,869,262	155.9
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 July 2, 2022