Small geographic area - cancer incidence
Cancer incidence by Statistical Area 3 incidence data is available on this page. It is expected that survival data will also be made available by the end of 2027. Cancer incidence and survival data by Primary Health Network and Local Government Area is also expected to be available within the same period and added to the cancer by small geographic area pages.
Cancer statistics by Statistical Area 3, 2011 to 2021
The Statistical Area 3 cancer incidence data has quite different presentation than other data within this report. Information about the various rates is available within the data visualisation. A working example of how to use the wide range of options interpreting the statistics is provided below the visualisation.
Please note that crude rates, rates standardised to the 2001 Australian Standard Population and to the 2025 Australian population can be used in time series to understand changes over time within the area.
The Standard Incidence Ratios (SIR) provide information whether the area is higher/lower than the respective choice (for example, if SIR Australia is selected it will provide information on whether the areas rates were higher/lower than Australian rates). SIRs should not be used in a time series, only in a relative capacity. For example, an area may have a remoteness Area of Major Cities and have an SIR for a cancer of 1 when compared to Australian major cities. However, for this hypothetical example, the rates mentioned in the above paragraph were increasing. Combined, this would mean that cancer incidence rates for the area have been increasing but broadly in line with other major cities.
Small-area variation often reflects underlying demographic and environmental factors rather than distinct local drivers. For this reason, SIR by SEIFA and Remoteness Area are provided to show that, although an area may differ from Australia overall, it may be similar to areas with comparable SEIFA and/or remoteness characteristics. SEIFA and remoteness are only some of the factors that may influence cancer patterns, and they do not affect all cancers.
Cancer incidence by Statistical Area 3
This visualisation shows cancer incidence by Statistical Area 3 and sex. Data are available for a range of cancer types viewable by different age-standardisations and Standard Incidence Ratios. The visualisation covers the SA3 population and also includes cancer incidence among people aged under 50, shown as a Standard Incidence Ratio using the Australian population aged under 50 as the comparator. Data are primarily available for 2012–2016, 2017–2021 and 2012–2021, with annual data shown where case numbers are sufficient. All data are available in Excel in the Data section of this report.
Cancer incidence by Statistical Area 3 data are available as supplementary tables.
Help using the Statistical Area 3 incidence data
Example case study using the data
Lung cancer, Dubbo (NSW), 2012 to 2021
In 2012 – 2021, there were 494 cases of lung cancer diagnosed in the SA3 of Dubbo. The crude rate was 68.6 cases per 100,000 people which was well above the Australian rate of 51.3 cases per 100,000 people.
Some areas have, on average, older populations and this can lead to higher crude rates of cancer (that is, when a cancer type is more common in older populations and the population is older, the crude rate of cancer in that area is likely to be higher as a result). The median age group in Dubbo for the period was 35 to 39 years of age and this is the same as it is for Australia and so the age structure may not greatly account for the difference in crude rates (although, the fact that the median age-group is around the same does not mean the median age is exactly the same and differences of several years can still contribute to crude rate differences).
Age-standardised incidence rates account for differences in the age structures of different populations. The age-standardised incidence rates in Dubbo for 2012–2021 were 67.1 cases per 100,000 people (this rate is standardised to the 2025 Australian population but rates standardised to the 2001 Australian Standard Population are also available). The Australian rate for the period was 56.8 cases per 100,000 people.
When using the Standard Incidence Ratio (SIR) for Australia, the ratio for Dubbo was 1.18. A ratio of 1 would suggest the lung cancer incidence rate for the area is around the same as would be expected for Australia. A ratio of 1.18 suggests that the area’s lung cancer rates are around 18% higher than would be expected if Australian lung cancer rates occurred in the area. The SIR also takes age-structure differences into account.
All of the above confirms that Dubbo had higher lung cancer incidence rates than the Australian average. However, the additional SIRs available within the data visualisations allow Dubbo’s lung cancer incidence rates to be even better understood.
Lung cancer is one of many cancers which differ by socio-economic disadvantage. For lung cancer, incidence rates increase as socio-economic disadvantage increases. The average socio-economic (SEIFA) quintile for Dubbo for the period was 1.9 (1 being the most disadvantaged and 5 being the least disadvantaged). The SIR for SEIFA quintile 2 for the period was 1.08 for Dubbo and for SEIFA quintile 1 it was 0.92. These SIRs suggest the rates are a little higher than other SEIFA quintile 2 areas but are lower than SEIFA quintile 1 areas.
Similarly, Remoteness Area can impact on the incidence rates for certain cancers. Dubbo is mainly comprised of Inner Regional areas l (54%) and Outer Regional areas (45%). For Dubbo, the SIR for Inner Regional areas was 1.14 while the SIR for outer regional areas was 1.05. This indicates that the lung cancer incidence rates were a little higher for Dubbo than for areas of similar remoteness.
Combined, the information indicates that lung cancer incidence rates for Dubbo are quite a bit higher than Australian rates but are more similar to areas of similar socio-economic disadvantage or remoteness.
For Dubbo, that the SIR for SEIFA quintile 5 is 1.62 and for major cities is 1.22 may be interesting but it is not directly relevant to the area. It suggests the lung cancer incidence rates are around 62% higher than is expected when compared to the least disadvantaged areas and around 22% than would be expected for Australian major cities. As Dubbo is not a major city, nor is it in the least disadvantaged SEIFA quintile, the rates do not help to understand Dubbo’s lung cancer incidence rates.
An additional SIR available is the ‘Australia under 50s SIR’ and this is used to provide some information about cancer among people aged under 50 years. For Dubbo, this SIR is 1.52 for lung cancer. This means that, for the period, Dubbo had around 52% more cases than would be expected if the Australian cancer incidence rates for those aged under 50 occurred in the area. At present, the Australian SIR is the only one available for the population under 50. There were 17 cases of lung cancer diagnosed in Dubbo in the population under 50 for the period.
Where there are sufficient cases, additional information is available such as annual time series. For Dubbo, it shows that the 2020 and 2021 lung cancer incidence rates were the lowest rates and much closer to Australia but this was after the highest rate recorded in 2019.
Similarly, for Dubbo, there are sufficient cases of lung cancer to provide information by sex. This shows that males have higher lung cancer incidence rates than females. This is generally expected for lung cancer. When the SIRs for SEIFA quintile 2 are used, the male rates were around 1 while the females were around 1.18. The combination of data suggests that male rates were higher than female rates but that the male rates were around the same as other populations of similar socio-economic disadvantage. Whereas even though the female lung cancer incidence rates were lower than they were for males, they were around 18% higher than Australian female populations of similar socio-economic disadvantage.