Cancer in Ethiopia was estimated at 79,239 new cases and 46,841 deaths for 2024 (IARC, GLOBOCAN 2024). Breast and cervical cancer lead both counts, and between them they make up just over half of all the cancers estimated in Ethiopian women. Prevention against HPV and hepatitis B — both of which have identified causes and available interventions — is where these figures point.

Key facts

The 2024 estimate for Ethiopia was 79,239 new cancer cases and 46,841 cancer deaths (opens in a new tab), in a population of 132,059,772. An estimated 142,431 people were within five years of a diagnosis — that is, alive and diagnosed at some point in the previous five years.
Breast cancer led both counts: 18,840 estimated cases and 8,812 deaths. Cervical cancer followed at 8,159 and 5,007, then colorectal at 7,372 and 4,108 (all IARC, GLOBOCAN 2024).
The age-standardised incidence rate for 2024 was 94.6 per 100,000 — 69.8 in men and 118.4 in women. The age-standardised mortality rate was 59.4 — 47.3 in men and 71.0 in women (IARC, GLOBOCAN 2024).
These are modelled estimates: rates from registry coverage of part of the country are applied to the national population, and deaths are derived from those rates using modelled ratios.

What the estimate covers

Every figure in this section comes from the same place: IARC’s Global Cancer Observatory fact sheet for Ethiopia (opens in a new tab), GLOBOCAN 2024 round. All of them are modelled estimates rather than counts.

Of the 79,239 cases estimated for 2024, 52,362 were in women and 26,877 in men. Women also accounted for 29,847 of the 46,841 estimated deaths. The gap between the sexes is driven by breast and cervical cancer, which between them make up just over half of all cancers estimated in Ethiopian women.

Ranked by estimated new cases in 2024, the ten largest sites were breast (18,840), cervix uteri (8,159), colorectum (7,372), prostate (3,494), leukaemia (2,967), thyroid (2,946), liver (2,346), stomach (2,323), lung (2,314) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (2,018).

Ranking by deaths reorders the list. Breast (8,812), cervix (5,007) and colorectum (4,108) stay at the top, but liver (2,143), prostate (2,134) and lung (2,078) move ahead of leukaemia and stomach, and thyroid — sixth by cases — falls far down the table with 707 estimated deaths.

How the estimate is made

The Ethiopian fact sheet states its own sources. Incidence comes from a subnational registry, with those rates applied to the 2024 national population. Mortality comes from applying model-based mortality-to-incidence ratios, derived from registry survival data, to the national incidence estimates. Deaths and cases therefore come from the same underlying rates rather than from two separate observations.

Two records of Ethiopia’s registry position sit side by side. Ethiopia reported to WHO in 2021 that a population-based cancer registry exists (WHO Global Health Observatory (opens in a new tab), indicator NCD_CCS_PBCR, single record, 2021, “Yes”). The Addis Ababa registry is absent from IARC’s Cancer Incidence in Five Continents and from Cancer Over Time. Both positions are stated here and neither is adjudicated.

Two rounds of estimates give different numbers

GLOBOCAN estimates are reissued periodically, and successive rounds use different methods and different population denominators, so figures from two rounds are not directly comparable. We use the 2024 estimates throughout.

Material published by others is not always on the same round. WHO AFRO was still citing the 2020 estimates for Ethiopian cervical cancer — 7,445 cases and 5,338 deaths — in its campaign launch release of November 2025, against the 2024 estimates of 8,159 and 5,007 used here (IARC, GLOBOCAN 2024). A reader comparing two publications will meet both sets of numbers, and the year of the round is what tells them apart.

Stage at diagnosis

WHO AFRO recorded in November 2025 that more than 80% of Ethiopian cervical cancer cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage (opens in a new tab), attributing this to screening access, awareness and socioeconomic barriers. Screening and awareness are the two of those three that the cervical cancer and signs and symptoms pages address directly.

What this means in Ethiopia

The estimates establish the approximate size of the burden, its distribution across sites, and the fact that breast and cervical cancer together account for just over half of the cancers estimated in Ethiopian women. They support the case for prevention against HPV and hepatitis B, both of which have identified causes and available interventions, set out on the reduce your risk pages.

Population-based registration is what answers the further questions a health system asks when it plans: how many people are diagnosed each year in a given region, at what stage, and what happens to them afterwards.

What you can do

Treat any Ethiopian cancer figure you meet, here or elsewhere, as an estimate. Ask which round it comes from; the 2020 and 2024 rounds give different numbers for the same disease.
Check the source figures yourself. The Ethiopian fact sheet is published under population code 231 and carries every number used on this page.
Read the site pages rather than the totals. The national total of 79,239 covers conditions with different causes and different answers, set out on cervical cancer, breast cancer and other cancers.
If you have noticed a change, do not wait for a figure to apply to you. Signs and symptoms sets out the changes that are a reason to be seen.