Addis Ababa, Ethiopia +251 92 012 4183 cancer.prev.ethio@gmail.com

Reduce your risk

Roughly 38% of cancers worldwide (opens in a new tab) could be prevented by acting on risk factors that are already known. Those risk factors are much the same from one country to another. What differs is how many people are exposed to each one. That is what decides where prevention effort has most effect. On WHO’s 2026 cancer fact sheet, infections such as HPV and hepatitis B account for roughly 30% of cancer cases in low- and lower-middle-income countries. That compares with about 10% worldwide in 2022. Ethiopian adult obesity was 2.9% in 2024. The global figure for 2022 was 16%.

These pages set out what is established about each risk factor and what the Ethiopian figures show.

Key facts

  • Ethiopia’s estimated burden for 2024 was 79,239 new cancer cases and 46,841 cancer deaths (opens in a new tab). Breast, cervical and colorectal were the three most common cancers.
  • Ethiopia, together with every other WHO member state, has signed up to the 90–70–90 cervical cancer targets for 2030. HPV coverage is reported on two bases that differ widely, and both sit in WHO systems. WHO’s estimate for the 9–14 target cohort was 51% in 2025 (opens in a new tab) (Global Health Observatory, indicator SDGHPVRECEIVED). Ethiopia’s own administrative reporting recorded female coverage between 90% and 94% for 2019 to 2023, and 96.0% first-dose for 2025. Neither figure is adopted over the other. In 2019, 4% of women aged 30–49 had ever been screened (indicator NCD_CXCA_SCREENED_WITHIN_TIMEPERIOD), against the 70% target.
Ethiopia against the WHO cervical cancer elimination targetsHorizontal bar chart of Ethiopia against the WHO 90-70-90 cervical cancer elimination targets for 2030. Vaccinate: 51 per cent of girls aged 9 to 14 in the target cohort have received HPV vaccine, against a target of 90 per cent. Screen: 4 per cent of women aged 30 to 49 have ever been screened by any method, against a target of 70 per cent; the 70 per cent target requires a high-performance test and Ethiopia screens with VIA, so true coverage against it is lower still. Treat: no national figure is published, against a target of 90 per cent. 0% 50% 100% target 90% target 70% the 70% target requires a high-performance test; Ethiopia screens with VIA, so true coverage against it is lower still target 90% no national figure published 51% 4% Ethiopia against the WHO cervical cancer elimination targets WHO 90–70–90 targets for 2030 Vaccinate — girls 9–14 in the target cohort receiving HPV vaccine Screen — women 30–49 ever screened, by any method Treat — women with pre-cancer or cancer receiving treatment Ethiopia against the WHO cervical cancer elimination targetsHorizontal bar chart of Ethiopia against the WHO 90-70-90 cervical cancer elimination targets for 2030. Vaccinate: 51 per cent of girls aged 9 to 14 in the target cohort have received HPV vaccine, against a target of 90 per cent. Screen: 4 per cent of women aged 30 to 49 have ever been screened by any method, against a target of 70 per cent; the 70 per cent target requires a high-performance test and Ethiopia screens with VIA, so true coverage against it is lower still. Treat: no national figure is published, against a target of 90 per cent. 0% 50% 100% Vaccinate — girls 9–14 in the target cohort receiving HPV vaccine target 90% Screen — women 30–49 ever screened, by any method target 70% the 70% target requires a high-performance test; Ethiopia screens with VIA, so true coverage against it is lower still Treat — women with pre-cancer or cancer receiving treatment target 90% no national figure published 51% 4% Ethiopia against the WHO cervical cancer elimination targets WHO 90–70–90 targets for 2030
Ethiopia against the three WHO 2030 cervical cancer elimination targets.
Sources
Sources, retrieved 14 August 2026. Vaccination: WHO Global Health Observatory indicator SDGHPVRECEIVED, HPV coverage among the primary target cohort of girls aged 9–14, Ethiopia 2025 = 51%. Ethiopia’s own administrative reporting records female HPV coverage of 90–94% for 2019 to 2023 and 96.0% first dose for 2025; both sit in WHO systems, the gap is unexplained, and neither is adopted here. The 90% target is defined on girls FULLY vaccinated by age 15, indicator 15HPVC_F, which is not published in the Global Health Observatory for Ethiopia, so the nearest verifiable figure is shown and labelled as such. Screening: GHO, women 30–49 ever screened, 2019 = 4% (95% CI 3–7). Treatment: no national figure is published.
Table
Ethiopia against the WHO 90–70–90 cervical cancer elimination targets for 2030. The 70% target requires a high-performance test; Ethiopia screens with VIA, so coverage against the target as written is lower still than the figure shown.
TargetEthiopia2030 target
Vaccinate (girls 9–14 in the target cohort receiving HPV vaccine)51%90%
Screen (women 30–49 ever screened, by any method)4%70%
Treat (women with pre-cancer or cancer receiving treatment)no national figure published90%

The screening figure needs one qualification. The 70% target is written for high-performance tests — HPV DNA or an equivalent molecular test. Ethiopia’s routine test is visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), which does not meet that definition. Measured against the target as written, Ethiopia’s position is closer to zero than to the 4% recorded in 2019. Ethiopia’s five-year screening figure was 3% in 2019 (WHO Global Health Observatory, indicator NCD_CXCA_SCREENED_WITHIN_TIMEPERIOD).

In a month-long campaign across six regions from 7 November 2025, 275,607 Ethiopian women were screened (opens in a new tab) against a target of 267,662. Of the 9,882 precancerous lesions found, nearly 80% were treated at the same visit. Partners put the annual requirement for reaching the 2030 targets at about 2.6 million women screened. So the campaign covered roughly a tenth of one year’s need.

What these pages cover

Tobacco — adult use at 4.6% in 2024 as surveyed and 4.5% as modelled, and adolescent smoking at 10.3% in 2023. The page sets out what the surveys and models behind those figures measure.

HPV vaccination — the vaccine, Ethiopia’s schedule, and what the coverage figures measure.

Infections — hepatitis B, hepatitis C, H. pylori and HIV, and how much of Ethiopia’s cancer burden occurs at sites with an established infectious cause.

Food and alcohol — the classifications that are established, and what Ethiopians were recorded eating and drinking.

Weight and physical activity — adult obesity at 2.9% in 2024 and physical inactivity at 9.4% in 2022 (WHO Global Health Observatory, indicators NCD_BMI_30A and NCD_PAA), against the global figures. The page sets out what those prevalences mean for prevention effort.

How these pages are written

Figures come from the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Each is given with the year it refers to. Claims are linked to the source that carries them. Ethiopia’s cancer estimates can be looked up directly in IARC’s Cancer Today (opens in a new tab) — Ethiopia is population code 231.

What this means in Ethiopia

Prevention material produced in high-income countries is written for populations with different exposures. Ethiopian physical inactivity was 9.4% in 2022, against a global 31% in the same year (indicator NCD_PAA). Alcohol consumption was 2.3 litres of pure alcohol per adult in 2024, against a world average of 4.9 (indicator SA_0000001688).

Two large Ethiopian exposures are infectious. An estimated 7.66 million Ethiopians were living with chronic hepatitis B in 2024, on WHO’s modelled estimate (indicator HEPATITIS_HBV_LIVINGWITH_NUM). Cervical cancer was the second most common cancer in the country that year (IARC, GLOBOCAN 2024). Almost all of it follows infection with a virus a vaccine prevents.

Diet, alcohol and body weight also appear in the Ethiopian record.

  • Alcohol per adult rose from 0.4 litres of pure alcohol in 2000 to 2.3 litres in 2024 (indicator SA_0000001688). It has been flat since 2018.
  • Colorectal and prostate cancer were the two most common cancers in Ethiopian men in 2024, with an estimated 3,518 and 3,494 cases (IARC, GLOBOCAN 2024).
  • Adult obesity nationally rose from 0.4% in 1990 to 2.9% in 2024. Separately, the 2015 national NCD risk-factor survey (opens in a new tab) found overweight concentrated among urban residents.

What you can do

  • If you have a daughter aged 9, take her for HPV vaccination through routine immunisation.
  • Make sure every baby in your family completes the routine infant vaccination schedule, which includes hepatitis B.
  • If you are a woman aged 30 or over, ask wherever you seek care whether cervical screening is offered there. The same question applies to women aged 25 or over who are living with HIV. Then ask which test is used. Ethiopia’s programme is opportunistic: women are not called in, so screening has to be asked for. If it is not offered where you ask, the next question is where the nearest site is.
  • If you use tobacco in any form, stopping lowers your risk. Counselling and medication more than double the chance of quitting, on WHO’s assessment. The question to put at a health facility is what help with stopping is available there. The tobacco page has the detail, including the adolescent figures.
  • Before acting on weight-loss or exercise advice written for other countries, read the weight and physical activity page.