Number of deaths

Box 2.1: Changes to bowel cancer mortality coding

The AIHW uses the National Mortality Database (NMD) to report cancer mortality, a database coded and compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). ABS advice notes that where the term ‘bowel cancer’ is recorded on the death certificate, internationally agreed rules state that the cancer should be coded to a less specific International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (ICD-10) code (C26.0) as the specific site of the cancer is not known (ABS 2016). The ABS advises further that the code C26.0 should be included alongside deaths due to cancers of the colon and rectum (C18–C20) when assessing ‘bowel cancer’ deaths. For this reason, monitoring reports for the NBCSP from 2019 onwards use C18–C20, and also include C26.0 when reporting deaths from bowel cancer using the NMD. 

In 2025, it is estimated that there were 1,779 bowel cancer deaths in people aged 50–74 (around 34% of all bowel cancer deaths). Bowel cancer was estimated to be the second leading cause of cancer death in Australians of all ages (after lung cancer) in 2025 (AIHW 2025). The all-ages bowel cancer mortality rate is lower than that of the target age group due to it containing ages lower than 50.

  • Target age group (50–74 years)

    1,779 deaths estimated in 2025

    23 deaths per 100,000 target-age people (ASR)

  • All ages

    5,235 deaths estimated in 2025

    14 deaths per 100,000 people (ASR)

It is estimated that, in 2025, the mortality rate was higher for people aged 50 and over than for younger people. The rate will increase with age for both men and women (Figure 2.2).

Figure 2.2: Age-specific mortality rates of bowel cancer, by sex, Australia, 2025

This line chart depicts the age-specific bowel cancer mortality rate for males, females and persons. It shows that the mortality rate of bowel cancer will be lowest in people aged under 45–49 and increase in the older age groups for both males and females. Males will have higher mortality rates than females for age groups from 45­–49 to 85+.

Source: Table A3.42.

The risk of dying from bowel cancer increases with increasing age. The risk (unadjusted for competing mortality) is estimated as being:

  • 1 in 1,000 before age 50
  • 6 in 1,000 for those aged 50–74
  • 23 in 1,000 for those aged 75 and over.

As mentioned earlier, once biennial screening has been in place for a number of years, it is expected that the risk of diagnosis and death for those in, and above, the target age group will reduce further, as those people will have been consistently invited to screen.


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