These Are the 10 Counties With the Highest Cancer Rates in California

Nobody likes cancer. We hope for a day when a cure for all types of cancer is available, but we aren’t there yet. Each year hundreds of thousands of people are diagnosed with a form of cancer and hundreds of thousands die from cancer.

Across the United States between 2016 and 2020, Kentucky had the highest cancer rate at nearly 14 percent above the national average. California fares much better on the list put together by Stacker, but the only good number with cancer would be 0. California ranks 47th in the United States for cancer cases, 10.4 percent below the national average with 397 new incidents per 100,000 people.

LIST: 10 California Counties With the Highest Cancer Rates

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has the stats for 2020 and in California, there were 163,726 new cancer cases and 59,778 people died from cancer. They do note that numbers from 2020 could be skewed due to COVID-19 disruptions in health services.

The gallery above shows the highest county cancer rates over a 5-year span. The data from the CDC can be narrowed down to just 2020 and then filtered for new cases and deaths from cancer.

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The single-year stats are very different for California counties. 2020 shows Glenn County with the highest cancer rate followed by Shasta, Butte, Tehama, and Yuba in the top 5. The death rate for cancer in California counties has Alpine topping the list followed by Yuba, Lake, Del Norte, and Siskiyou. Lake County is the one making the 5-year list and the 2020 single-year list.

What is the Leading Cause of Death in California

Cancer is the second-highest cause of death in California. Heart Disease is the leading cause of death in California. COVID is third followed by Stroke and Alzheimer's Disease.