Prostate Cancer: Statistics

Approved by the Cancer.Net Editorial Board, 03/2023

ON THIS PAGE: You will find information about the estimated number of people who will be diagnosed with prostate cancer each year. You will also read general information on surviving the disease. Remember, survival rates depend on several factors, and no 2 people with cancer are the same. Use the menu to see other pages.

Every person is different, with different factors influencing their risk of being diagnosed with this cancer and the chance of recovery after a diagnosis. It is important to talk with your doctor about any questions you have around the general statistics provided below and what they may mean for you individually. The original sources for these statistics are provided at the bottom of this page.

How many people are diagnosed with prostate cancer?

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men, except for skin cancer. In 2023, an estimated 288,300 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Worldwide, an estimated 1,414,259 people were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2020. It is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world.

Prostate cancer incidence rates dropped steeply from 2007 to 2014 because screening guidelines at the time resulted in less prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing. But since 2014, overall incidence rates have gone up by around 3% each year, and incidence rates for advanced-stage prostate cancer rose by 5% each year.

Around 60% of cases are diagnosed in people age 65 or older. The average age at the time of diagnosis is 66 years. The disease is rarely identified in those younger than 40. The number of new cases diagnosed in Black men is 70% higher than the number of new cases diagnosed in White men. Black men in the United States and the Caribbean have the highest incidence rates of prostate cancer around the globe.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the United States. It is estimated that 34,700 deaths from this disease will occur in the United States in 2023. In 2020, an estimated 375,304 people worldwide died from prostate cancer.

However, the death rate dropped by half from 1993 to 2013 as a result of advances in screening and treatment. From 2016 to 2020, the decline in the death rate slowed to just over a half of a percent each year, likely as a result of the increase in prostate cancers diagnosed at an advanced stage. There are more than 3.1 million survivors of prostate cancer in the United States today.

What is the survival rate for prostate cancer?

There are different types of statistics that can help doctors evaluate a person’s chance of recovery from prostate cancer. These are called survival statistics. A specific type of survival statistic is called the relative survival rate. It is often used to predict how having cancer may affect life expectancy. Relative survival rate looks at how likely people with prostate cancer are to survive for a certain amount of time after their initial diagnosis or start of treatment compared to the expected survival of similar people without this cancer.

Example: Here is an example to help explain what a relative survival rate means. Please note this is only an example and not specific to this type of cancer. Let’s assume that the 5-year relative survival rate for a specific type of cancer is 90%. “Percent” means how many out of 100. Imagine there are 1,000 people without cancer, and based on their age and other characteristics, you expect 900 of the 1,000 to be alive in 5 years. Also imagine there are another 1,000 people similar in age and other characteristics as the first 1,000, but they all have the specific type of cancer that has a 5-year survival rate of 90%. This means it is expected that 810 of the people with the specific cancer (90% of 900) will be alive in 5 years.

It is important to remember that statistics on the survival rates for people with prostate cancer are only an estimate. They cannot tell an individual person if cancer will or will not shorten their life. Instead, these statistics describe trends in groups of people previously diagnosed with the same disease, including specific stages of the disease.

The 5-year relative survival rate for prostate cancer in the United States is 97%. The 10-year relative survival rate is 98%.

The survival rates for prostate cancer vary based on several factors. These include the stage and grade of the cancer, a person’s age and general health, and how well the treatment plan works. Another factor that can affect outcomes is the type of prostate cancer.

Approximately 83% of prostate cancers are found when the disease is in only the prostate and nearby organs (70% local and 13% regional). This is referred to as the local or regional stage. The 5-year relative survival rate for most people with local or regional prostate cancer is nearly 100%. For people diagnosed with prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, the 5-year relative survival rate is 32%.

Experts measure relative survival rate statistics for prostate cancer every 5 years. This means the estimate may not reflect the results of advancements in how prostate cancer is diagnosed or treated from the last 5 years. Talk with your doctor if you have any questions about this information. Learn more about understanding statistics.

Statistics adapted from the American Cancer Society's (ACS) publication, Cancer Facts & Figures 2023, the ACS website, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer website. (All sources accessed March 2023.)

The next section in this guide is Medical Illustrations. It offers drawings of body parts often affected by prostate cancer. Use the menu to choose a different section to read in this guide.