Key Statistics for Bladder Cancer

How common is bladder cancer?

The American Cancer Society’s estimates for bladder cancer in the United States for 2024 are:

• About 83,190 new cases of bladder cancer (about 63,070 in men and 20,120 in women)
• About 16,840 deaths from bladder cancer (about 12,290 in men and 4,550 in women)

The rates of both new bladder cancers and deaths from bladder cancer have been dropping in recent years.

• Bladder cancer incidence rates decreased slowly during the late 2000s, then accelerated to 1.7% per year from 2015 through 2019.
• Bladder cancer death rates were stable during the 1990s and 2000s, but declined by 1.5% per year from 2015 to 2021.

The incidence of bladder cancer is 4 times higher in men than in women and 2 times higher in White men than in Black, Hispanic, or Asian/Pacific Islander men.

Risk of bladder cancer

Bladder cancer occurs mainly in older people. About 9 out of 10 people with this cancer are over the age of 55. The average age of people when they are diagnosed is 73.

Overall, the chance that men will develop this cancer during their lifetime is about 1 in 28. For women, the chance is about 1 in 89. But each person’s chances of getting bladder cancer can be affected by certain risk factors.

Extent of cancer at the time of diagnosis

About half of all bladder cancers are first found while the cancer is still only in the inner layer of the bladder wall. (These are non-invasive or in situ cancers.) About 1 in 3 bladder cancers have spread into deeper layers of the bladder wall but are still only in the bladder. In most of the remaining cases, the cancer has spread to nearby tissues or lymph nodes outside the bladder. Rarely (in about 5% of cases), it has spread to distant parts of the body.

Survival statistics are discussed in Survival Rates for Bladder Cancer.

Visit the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Statistics Center for more key statistics.