BreastScreen Australia monitoring report 2025

Results

Summary data and trends are shown for both final participation for 2022–2023 and preliminary participation for 2023–2024.

Final participation 2022–2023

In 2022–2023, a total of 2,213,977 participants were screened through BreastScreen Australia, of whom, 1,901,090 (85.9%) were aged 50–74. This is equivalent to a participation rate of 51.7% for those aged 50–74.

Preliminary participation 2023–2024

Preliminary participation data are for 2023–2024 are reported ahead of the reporting in full of final participation data for 2023–2024 in the BreastScreen Australia monitoring report 2026.

In 2023–2024, a total of 2,323,518 participants were screened through BreastScreen Australia, of whom, 1,950,215 (83.9%) were aged 50–74. This is equivalent to a participation rate of 52.3% for the target age group 50–74.

Participation trends

The participation rate among the target age group 50–74 remained stable over time prior to 2020. The age-standardised participation rate remained between 53% and 54% from 2014–2015 to 2018–2019 and decreased to 49.3% and 47.0% in 2019–2020 and 2020–2021, respectively, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participation increased to 51.2% in 2022–2023 and 51.9% in 2023–2024 (Figure 1.1).

The following data are shown for final participation for 2022–2023 only.

Participation by age

In 2022–2023, of the women aged 40 and over who were screened through BreastScreen Australia, participation was highest in the target age group of 50–74. This is in line with the aim of BreastScreen Australia to maximise the proportion of women in the target age group who are screened every 2 years (Figure 1.2). Furthermore, the proportion screened in all 5-year age groups within the target age group was equal to or above 47.6%, peaking at 55.4% in participants aged 65–69. The participation rates outside the target age group were lower, at 13.2% for participants aged 40–49 and 8.0% for participants aged 75 and over.

With the addition of ages 70–74 to the target age group, the number of participants screening aged 70–74 increased substantially, from 97,957 in 2011–2012 (the last reporting period for which the target age group was 50–69) to 319,838 in 2022–2023. This equated to a rise in the participation rate of those aged 70–74, from 25.9% in 2011–2012 to 53.4% in 2022–2023. At 53.4%, the participation rate for ages 70–74 is now higher than the participation rate for ages 50–59 of 48.6%.

Participation by state and territory

In 2022–2023, the age-standardised participation rate for the target age group 50–74 varied between the states and territories from 35.1% to 57.1%.

Participation by main language spoken at home

In 2022–2023, the age-standardised participation rate for the target age group 50–74 was 39.9% for those who spoke a language other than English at home compared with 53.9% for those who spoke English at home.

Participation by remoteness area

In 2022–2023, the age-standardised participation rates for the target age group 50–74 were highest in Inner regional and Outer regional areas at 53.6% and 53.4%, respectively, followed by participants living in Major cities and Remote areas at 50.3% and 48.6%, respectively (Figure 1.3). The participation rate was lowest for participants living in Very remote areas at 36.3%.

Participation by socioeconomic area

In 2022–2023, there was little variation in participation for the target age group 50–74 across socioeconomic areas, with all areas having an age-standardised participation rate between 47.3% and 54.5% (Figure 1.3).

Participation by month

The number of screening mammograms performed through BreastScreen Australia each month in 2022 and 2023 is shown in Figure 1.4.

The number of screening mammograms performed in 2023 was notably higher than the number of screening mammograms performed in 2022 for the months January to May.