Summary

Cancer screening involves testing for signs of cancer or precancerous conditions in people without obvious symptoms. In Australia, there are national population-based screening programs for breast, cervical, and bowel cancers, and a national targeted screening program for lung cancer that commenced on 1 July 2025.

The National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP) is Australia's national population-based cervical screening program. It aims to reduce cervical cancer cases, illness, and deaths by detecting precancerous abnormalities before any potential progression to cervical cancer.

This report is the latest in the annual National Cervical Screening Program monitoring report series and presents the latest data available for each performance indicator.

How many people participated?

A new definition of participation in cervical screening

Previous National Cervical Screening Program monitoring reports included two measures under Performance Indicator 1: Participation – participation and coverage. These have been replaced with a new, single measure of participation, which appears for the first time in this report.

This new definition of participation includes all HPV tests rather than only screening HPV tests (participation) or all HPV and LBC tests (coverage); the most recent test is selected instead of the first test; and it is measured over 5.5 years instead of 5 years.

Participation in this report onwards is defined as the number of participants aged 25–74 who had an HPV test over 5.5 years as a proportion of the number of eligible females aged 25–74 in the population.

Over the 5.5 years from 1 January 2020 to 30 June 2025, more than 5.5 million participants aged 25–74 had an HPV test, which is 78% of the eligible population.

The age-standardised participation rate has decreased over time, from 81% over the 5.5 years 2018–June 2023, to 79% over the 5.5 years 2019–June 2024, and to 78% over the 5.5 years 2020–June 2025.

Screening results in 2024

Screening HPV test positivity is the proportion of valid primary screening HPV tests that detected oncogenic (cancer-causing) HPV. In 2024, for participants aged 25–74, positivity was:

  • 1% for the two types of HPV that cause most cervical cancers (oncogenic HPV 16 and 18)
  • 6% for the other types of HPV that cause cervical cancers (oncogenic HPV other than 16 and 18)
  • 7% for any type of HPV that cause cervical cancers.

Assessment results in 2023

Participants considered at higher risk of a significant cervical abnormality (changes to cells in the cervix that have a higher likelihood of progression to cervical cancer, or cervical cancer itself) are referred for colposcopy, which is the examination of the cervix using a magnifying instrument called a colposcope, and is the first step in assessment.

In 2023, of the participants aged 25–74 at higher risk of a significant cervical abnormality, 47% had a colposcopy within 3 months. Median time to colposcopy was 79 days.

Diagnosis results in 2024

Detection of high-grade abnormalities provides an opportunity for treatment before possible progression to cervical cancer.

In 2024, for every 1,000 participants screened, 7 had a high-grade abnormality detected by histology. In contrast, for every 1,000 participants screened, fewer than one had a cervical cancer detected. This reflects that the aim of cervical screening is not to detect cervical cancer, but to prevent it through the detection of high-grade abnormalities.

Cancer and death outcomes

Progress towards the elimination of cervical cancer

An incidence of fewer than 4 new cases per 100,000 women is the point at which cervical cancer will be considered to be eliminated as a public health problem.

This definition is based on the number of new cases of cervical cancer in females of all ages per 100,000 females in the population, age-standardised to the WHO World 2015 female population.

In 2021, this was 6.2 new cases per 100,000 women.

In 2021, 886 women aged 25–74 were diagnosed with cervical cancer, which is 11 new cases per 100,000 women in the population.

In 2023, 210 women aged 25–74 died from cervical cancer, which is between 2 and 3 deaths per 100,000 women in the population.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

In 2024, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants aged 25–74, positivity was:

  • 2% for the two types of HPV that cause most cervical cancers (oncogenic HPV 16 and 18)
  • 9% for the other types of HPV that cause cervical cancers (oncogenic HPV other than 16 and 18).

In 2023, of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants aged 25–74 at higher risk of a significant cervical abnormality, 38% had a colposcopy within 3 months.

In 2024, for every 1,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants aged 25–74 screened, 13 had a high-grade cervical abnormality detected by histology, providing an opportunity for treatment prior to any possible progression to cervical cancer.

In 2017–2021, 194 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women aged 25–74 were diagnosed with cervical cancer. After adjusting for age, incidence among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women was twice the rate of non-Indigenous women.

In 2019–2023, 71 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women aged 25–74 died from cervical cancer. After adjusting for age, mortality among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women was more than three times the rate of non-Indigenous women.

Since the National Cervical Screening Program began

The NCSP is a highly successful public health initiative in Australia, with cervical cancer incidence and mortality halving since it was introduced in 1991. A renewed NCSP was introduced on 1 December 2017 that included a change from 2-yearly Pap tests for the target age group 20–69 to 5-yearly HPV tests with partial genotyping, followed by an LBC test if oncogenic HPV is found, for the target age group 25–74. A further change on 1 July 2022 introduced a choice between a self-collected or a clinician-collected HPV test sample for all participants.

Since the NCSP began in 1991, more than 60 million screens have been performed, and a high-grade cervical abnormality has been detected in more than 400,000 participants.

The AIHW has previously conducted data linkage studies of women diagnosed with cervical cancer that showed that most cervical cancers (more than 70%) occurred in women who had never screened or who were lapsed screeners, reflecting that the NCSP aims to detect high-grade cervical abnormalities in order to prevent cervical cancers. These findings demonstrate the benefits of cervical screening in Australia (AIHW 2018, 2019).

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