Childhood cancer remains a major health concern for families across the United States. The National Cancer Institute estimated 14,910 diagnoses and 1,590 cancer deaths among children and adolescents ages 0 to 19 in 2024. These figures are estimates for a specific year and age range, while many survival figures describe earlier measurement periods.
Contents
- U.S. diagnosis and mortality estimates
- Survival across age groups
- Changes in survival over time
- How childhood cancer is measured
- Childhood leukemia statistics
- Childhood brain and nervous system cancer
U.S. diagnosis and mortality estimates
The NCI’s Cancer in Children and Adolescents estimates provide a national snapshot for 2024. Among people ages 0 to 19, the estimate was 14,910 new cancer diagnoses and 1,590 cancer deaths. The same source estimates 9,620 diagnoses and 1,040 deaths among children ages 0 to 14. Among adolescents ages 15 to 19, the estimates were 5,290 diagnoses and 550 deaths.
| Population | Estimated diagnoses in 2024 | Estimated deaths in 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Ages 0–19 | 14,910 | 1,590 |
| Ages 0–14 | 9,620 | 1,040 |
| Ages 15–19 | 5,290 | 550 |
The age boundaries matter when reading a statistic. The 0-to-19 estimate includes both children and adolescents, while the 0-to-14 and 15-to-19 estimates separate the two groups. They should not be treated as interchangeable measures.
The NCI identifies cancer as the leading cause of death by disease after infancy among children in the United States. For caregivers, this places childhood cancer in the context of a relatively uncommon but serious group of diseases whose effects extend beyond medical treatment to family routines, schooling, work, transportation, and emotional support.
Survival across age groups
Recent NCI survival data show 5-year survival above 80% for each listed childhood age group during 2013 to 2019. The measure is the share of patients living at least five years after diagnosis; it is not a guarantee for an individual child and does not describe every cancer type equally.
The 2013-to-2019 5-year survival estimates were 83.2% for children younger than 1 year, 87.8% for ages 1 to 4, 85.7% for ages 5 to 9, 85.5% for ages 10 to 14, and 87.3% for adolescents ages 15 to 19. The highest listed estimate was 87.8% for children ages 1 to 4, and the lowest was 83.2% for children younger than 1 year.
| Age at diagnosis | 5-year survival, 2013–2019 |
|---|---|
| Younger than 1 year | 83.2% |
| Ages 1–4 | 87.8% |
| Ages 5–9 | 85.7% |
| Ages 10–14 | 85.5% |
| Ages 15–19 | 87.3% |
These figures are useful for understanding population-level outcomes, but they do not predict a particular child’s experience. Diagnosis, cancer type, disease characteristics, treatment response, and access to care can all affect an individual outcome. The supplied NCI figures report age-group survival, not a complete explanation of those differences.
Changes in survival over time
The NCI reports a substantial long-term change in 5-year survival among children and adolescents with cancer. In the mid-1970s, 58% of children ages 0 to 14 survived at least five years. During the same period, 68% of adolescents ages 15 to 19 survived at least five years. These historical figures are distinct from the 2013-to-2019 age-specific estimates and should be read with their original measurement periods.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia provides another example of change over time. Its 5-year survival rose from 57% in 1975 to 92.3% in 2014 to 2020, according to the NCI. The earlier and later figures use different periods, so the comparison describes a reported historical trend rather than a current forecast for an individual patient.
The improvement in population survival changes the support needs families may face. More children living for at least five years can mean more families navigating extended treatment, follow-up care, school re-entry, long-term monitoring, and the practical effects of illness. Survival statistics therefore matter not only as outcome measures but also as context for caregiver planning.
How childhood cancer is measured
The National Childhood Cancer Registry covers childhood cancer patients diagnosed in the United States, with about 15,000 cases annually. The NCI describes the registry as a system designed to connect multiple heterogeneous data sources for pediatric cancer research. That purpose helps explain why registry-based statistics can bring together information collected through different channels.
NCCRExplorer provides incidence and survival statistics for cancers among people ages 0 to 39 and uses National Childhood Cancer Registry data for diagnoses from 2001 forward. NCCR data through 2022 are available in SEERStat. These coverage details identify what a statistic represents and which years are included; they do not mean every measure covers the same population or period.
Childhood cancer statistics in NCCR*Explorer cover 75% of the U.S. population, according to the Cancer Statistics Explorer Network. SEER cancer statistics cover 46% of the U.S. population for incidence and 100% for mortality. Because the coverage differs, incidence and mortality statistics from different systems should not be combined casually or treated as if they came from identical populations.
The NCI also reports age-based diagnosis rates for broader groups. Children younger than 15 had 17.14 cancer diagnoses per 100,000 in the United States. Adolescents and young adults ages 15 to 39 had 74.9 diagnoses per 100,000, while adults ages 40 to 64 had 528.9 diagnoses per 100,000. These rates use different age bands, so they describe the listed groups rather than a direct child-versus-adult comparison at one common age.
Childhood leukemia statistics
SEER’s Childhood Leukemia Cancer Stat Facts reports a 5-year relative survival rate of 86.7% for 2016 to 2022. Childhood leukemia incidence was 4.9 per 100,000 children per year, and the death rate was 0.5 per 100,000 children per year. Leukemia accounted for 25.7% of all new childhood cancer cases in the reported data.
The age distribution shows that childhood leukemia was most frequently diagnosed among children ages 1 to 4. Those children accounted for 34.3% of new cases. Children ages 5 to 9 accounted for 22.4%, ages 10 to 14 for 20.0%, and ages 15 to 19 for 19.7%. The median age at diagnosis was 7.
| Childhood leukemia measure | Reported statistic |
|---|---|
| 5-year relative survival, 2016–2022 | 86.7% |
| Incidence | 4.9 per 100,000 children per year |
| Death rate | 0.5 per 100,000 children per year |
| Share of all new childhood cancer cases | 25.7% |
| Median age at diagnosis | 7 years |
SEER also reports sex- and race/ethnicity-specific incidence figures. Among boys of all races, incidence was 5.5 per 100,000; it was 7.3 per 100,000 among Hispanic boys, 4.6 among non-Hispanic White boys, and 3.4 among non-Hispanic Black boys. Among girls of all races, incidence was 4.2 per 100,000; it was 5.3 among Hispanic girls, 3.8 among non-Hispanic White girls, and 2.7 among non-Hispanic Black girls.
For mortality, the childhood leukemia death rate among boys of all races was 0.6 per 100,000, compared with 0.9 among Hispanic boys. Among girls of all races, the rate was 0.4 per 100,000, compared with 0.5 among Hispanic girls. Children ages 15 to 19 accounted for 32.8% of childhood leukemia deaths, and the median age at death was 12.
Childhood brain and nervous system cancer
SEER’s Childhood Brain and Other Nervous System Cancer Stat Facts reports a 5-year relative survival rate of 74.5% for 2016 to 2022. Incidence was 2.7 per 100,000 children per year, and the death rate was 0.6 per 100,000 children per year. These cancers represented 14.3% of all new childhood cancer cases.
Incidence among boys of all races was 2.8 per 100,000, and incidence among girls of all races was 2.6 per 100,000. Among non-Hispanic White boys, incidence was 3.2 per 100,000; among non-Hispanic White girls, it was 3.0 per 100,000.
The age distribution differed from the leukemia distribution. Children ages 5 to 9 accounted for 27.6% of childhood brain and other nervous system cancer cases, while children ages 1 to 4 accounted for 24.6%. The median age at diagnosis was 8.
For families and caregivers, these statistics provide population-level context about how often selected cancers occur, how outcomes are measured, and how age groups appear in the data. They cannot replace a child’s medical team’s guidance, but they can help make discussions about diagnosis, treatment, survival, and longer-term support more specific.