Key Statistics About Breast Cancer

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Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States, except for skin cancers. It accounts for about 30% (or 1 in 3) of all new female cancers each year.

The American Cancer Society's estimates for breast cancer in the United States for 2025 are: 

• About 316,950 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women. 
• About 59,080 new cases of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) will be diagnosed.  
• About 42,170 women will die from breast cancer.

Breast cancer mainly occurs in middle-aged and older women. The median age at the time of breast cancer diagnosis is 62. This means half of the women who developed breast cancer are 62 years of age or younger when they are diagnosed.  A very small number of women diagnosed with breast cancer are younger than 45.

Overall, the average risk of a woman in the United States developing breast cancer sometime in her life is about 13%. This means there is a 1 in 8 chance she will develop breast cancer. This also means there is a 7 in 8 chance she will never have the disease.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women. (Only lung cancer kills more women each year.) The chance that any woman will die from breast cancer is about 1 in 43 (about 2.3%).

Breast cancer death rates have been decreasing steadily since 1989, for an overall decline of 44% through 2022. The decrease in death rates is believed to be the result of finding breast cancer earlier through screening and increased awareness, as well as better treatments.

At this time there are more than 4 million breast cancer survivors in the United States. This includes women still being treated and those who have completed treatment.