A new Gallup poll shows that cancer diagnoses among U.S. adults have reached a record high.

According to the survey, 9.7% of adults reported having been diagnosed with cancer during the 2024–2025 period — a sharp rise from the 7.0% reported in 2008–2009.

For several years, from 2010 to 2015, the rate hovered just above 7% before beginning a steady climb over the past decade.

Gallup notes that one major reason for the increase is that more people are living longer after a diagnosis.

The American Cancer Society reports that overall cancer mortality fell by 1.7% each year between 2013 and 2022. Five-year survival rates have also improved significantly, rising from 63% for people diagnosed in 1995–1997 to 69% for those diagnosed between 2014 and 2020.

As a result, more Americans are surviving cancer — and therefore reporting a diagnosis at some point in their lives.

Older Americans Show the Greatest Increases

Cancer diagnoses remain far more common in older adults than in younger groups, and that gap is widening. Among people 65 and older, the share who reported having been diagnosed with cancer rose 3.4 percentage points between 2008–2009 and 2024–2025.

Gallup found that 21.5% of adults 65 and older said they had been told by a doctor or nurse that they had cancer. By comparison, nearly 9% of those ages 45 to 64 reported the same.

According to the American Cancer Society, advanced age is the strongest risk factor for developing cancer.

And the U.S. Census Bureau predicts that by 2034, adults over 65 will outnumber those under 18 for the first time in the nation’s history — a shift that could further accelerate the rise in diagnoses.

Gender Differences

Men now have slightly higher lifetime cancer diagnosis rates than women — 9.8% versus 9.6%. The share of men who reported receiving a diagnosis has risen 3.6 points since Gallup’s 2008–2009 report.

Gallup attributes part of this trend to major improvements in mortality for historically deadly cancers such as lung and prostate cancer. Men benefited disproportionately from declining smoking rates and increased PSA screening.

For women, earlier waves of breast cancer survivors — particularly those diagnosed between 1990 and 2010 — contributed to their higher numbers. Breast cancer mortality continues to fall, but at a slower rate than in past decades, and the decline in lung cancer deaths among women has also been more modest than among men.

The encouraging news from the new Gallup data is that mortality rates continue to drop, and more people are surviving the disease. However, as the population ages, the number of Americans living with a past cancer diagnosis is expected to keep rising.