From Cancer mortality Annual update to 2024 planned revision, published today:

• In 2024 the European Age Standardised Rate (EASR), or risk of dying from cancer in Scotland, decreased by 12.1% compared to 2015 (from 328.5 to 288.9 per 100,000 population respectively).
• However, despite this reduction, the number of deaths due to cancer has increased by 2.1% (to 16,352 from 16,011 in 2015). This largely reflects an increase in the proportion of older age groups within the population, and the fact that cancer is more common among older people. Two-thirds (70%) of all cancer deaths occurred in people aged seventy and over, an increase from 66% in 2015.

Let’s be clear what this means. Slightly more people died from cancer in 2024 than in 2015 but that is simply because there are more older people in the overall population.

What really matters here, as a measure of how well NHS Scotland is performing, is the ratio of those dying, of the overall population – the risk you face. That has improved dramatically, falling 12.1%, from 328,5 per 100 000 to 288.9 per 100 000.

Source: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancer-mortality/cancer-mortality-in-scotland-annual-update-to-2024-planned-revision/