Cancer data in Australia

Around 30% of the current Australian population were born overseas (ABS 2024). The information in this report will be useful in understanding where cancer incidence is higher in certain population groups, and potentially in targeting services and programs in locations where there is a relatively high prevalence of people from a specific country or region that have high rates of certain cancers. 

The report confirms that just as there is a sizeable diversity of cancer incidence rates apparent across the world, Australia has its own considerable diversity of cancer incidence rates when cancer incidence is considered by country and region of birth. 

This report discusses and compares cancer incidence rates that occur within a country and makes general comparisons to see whether cancer rates had some similarity for people living in Australia who were born in those countries. There are many instances where this occurs, and it provides some support that the cancer incidence from the country of birth appears to relate more to the population within Australia than the rates generally occurring within the overall Australian population. However, the international environment does not always provide useful context for the rates occurring in Australia.

The extent to which the international cancer incidence rates can provide context for rates occurring in Australia is somewhat limited (mostly it can support high incidence rates). Cancer detection capabilities and practices within a country can also impact on the cancer incidence rate. For example, a country with an established national breast screening program will often have higher breast cancer incidence rates than a country without. For this cancer and many others, the difference in cancer detection practices and capabilities between countries is likely to impact international comparisons to varying extents.

There are other limitations to the extent that international findings can support or explain cancer incidence within Australia by country of birth. For example, the demographics of the population born in a particular country and now living in Australia may be quite different to the general population in the country in which they were born, including differences in racial composition, ethnicity, or socio-economic background.

The length of time the population has spent living in Australia may also contribute towards the overseas-born population’s cancer incidence differing from the respective country of birth. For example, with Australia’s climate having relatively high ultra-violet radiation from the sun, risk of melanoma of the skin for the overseas-born population may increase with more time spent in Australia.

The report illustrates the differences in cancer incidence rates between populations and does not generally focus on risk factors to understand why populations have different cancer incidence rates. There is often insufficient information to consider doing so.

The available data on cancer diagnoses in Australia include information on country of birth, but not on any other countries or regions in which the person lived prior to their diagnosis. Hence, this report only focuses on variations in cancer incidence within Australia by people’s country and region of birth.

Countries and regions of birth populations in Australia are often relatively small and incidence rates for smaller populations can be volatile. Therefore, the report examines cancer incidence for the 2006–2020 period to reduce the volatility of rates that may occur when using shorter periods (such as single years). Incidence rates for the 5-year periods of 2006–2010, 2011–2015, and 2016–2020 also accompany the report in the Data section and data visualisation. Not all countries and regions of birth are included in the report, only those with sufficiently large populations for reporting are included.