How Many People Die From Leukaemia Every Year?
Leukaemia kills about 305,000 people a year, around 840 a day. Global, UK and US figures, the four main types, survival rates and the child survival gap.
Picture a seven-year-old who has been off school with one cold after another. He is pale, he bruises when he bumps the table, and he says his legs ache at night. His parents put it down to a run of bad luck and a growth spurt. Then a GP orders a simple blood test, and by the evening the family is sitting in a children's cancer ward being told the word nobody wants to hear.
Leukaemia is the cancer most people associate with children, and that picture is real: it is the most common childhood cancer in the world. But it is only half the story. Most people who die of leukaemia are not children at all. They are adults in their seventies and eighties, and their outlook is very different. Here is what the numbers show.
The headline number
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer's GLOBOCAN 2022 estimates, leukaemia caused 305,033 deaths worldwide in a single year, from 486,777 new cases. That works out to around 836 deaths every day, or one person roughly every one hundred seconds.
For context, our live death counter tracks the full global toll of around 170,000 deaths a day from all causes. Leukaemia is a small slice of that total, but it is one that touches every age group, from toddlers to great-grandparents.
| Time period | Leukaemia deaths worldwide (approx.) |
|---|---|
| Per year | 305,000 |
| Per month | 25,400 |
| Per week | 5,870 |
| Per day | 836 |
| Per hour | 35 |
| Per minute | 0.6 |
Deaths are around 63% of new cases in the same year. That ratio is a blunt measure, because people diagnosed in one year may die years later, but it hints at how much survival depends on the type of leukaemia, the age of the patient and, above all, where in the world they live.
Where leukaemia sits among cancers
Cancer as a whole kills close to 10 million people a year, which we break down in how many people die from cancer every day. Leukaemia accounts for about 3% of those deaths, placing it around tenth among cancer killers worldwide.
| Cancer (worldwide, GLOBOCAN 2022) | Approx. deaths per year | Approx. per day |
|---|---|---|
| Lung | 1,820,000 | 4,990 |
| Bowel (colorectal) | 904,000 | 2,480 |
| Liver | 758,000 | 2,080 |
| Breast | 666,000 | 1,820 |
| Stomach | 660,000 | 1,810 |
| Pancreas | 467,000 | 1,280 |
| Leukaemia | 305,000 | 836 |
It sits below the big solid tumours because it is less common, not because it is gentle. Some forms, such as acute myeloid leukaemia in older adults, remain among the hardest cancers to treat. You can see how cancer as a whole compares with other killers on our cancer cause page.
Leukaemia is not one disease
Leukaemia is a cancer of the blood-forming cells in the bone marrow. Instead of making healthy red cells, white cells and platelets, the marrow fills up with abnormal white cells that do not work properly. Doctors split it into four main types, depending on which cells are affected and how fast it grows.
| Type | Who it mostly affects | How fast it moves |
|---|---|---|
| Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) | Young children, peak age 2 to 5 | Fast, needs treatment within days |
| Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) | Older adults, average age at diagnosis around 68 | Fast, and the deadliest type |
| Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) | Adults over 60, rare under 40 | Slow, some people never need treatment |
| Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) | Adults, average age in the mid sixties | Slow, controlled by daily tablets |
The United States gives the clearest recent breakdown of how those types translate into deaths. The American Cancer Society's estimates for 2026 put the main types like this:
| Type (US, 2026 estimates) | New cases | Deaths |
|---|---|---|
| Acute myeloid (AML) | 22,720 | 11,500 |
| Chronic lymphocytic (CLL) | 22,760 | 4,350 |
| Acute lymphocytic (ALL) | 6,250 | 1,600 |
| Chronic myeloid (CML) | 9,650 | 1,170 |
| Other leukaemias | 6,410 | 5,290 |
| All leukaemias (combined) | about 67,800 | about 23,900 |
The pattern jumps out. CLL and AML are diagnosed in almost identical numbers, yet AML kills more than two and a half times as many people. ALL, the childhood leukaemia, makes up under a tenth of US cases and a smaller share of deaths, because modern treatment cures most children who get it.
Survival: from almost hopeless to mostly curable
Fifty years ago a child diagnosed with ALL had perhaps a one in ten chance of long-term survival. Today, in countries with good access to treatment, around nine in ten are cured. That turnaround, achieved through carefully tested combinations of chemotherapy given over two to three years, is one of the great success stories of modern medicine.
Adults have not seen the same leap, especially with AML.
| Type | Approx. 5-year relative survival (US, SEER) |
|---|---|
| CLL | about 89% |
| CML | about 70% |
| ALL (all ages) | about 72% |
| ALL (children) | about 90% or higher |
| AML (all ages) | about 32% |
| AML (age 65 and over) | well under 15% |
CML is worth a special mention. Before 2001 most people with it died within a few years. Then a targeted tablet called imatinib arrived, which switches off the faulty protein that drives the disease. Many people with CML now take a daily pill and have a near-normal life expectancy. It became the model for the whole field of targeted cancer drugs.
AML in older people is the hard end of the spectrum. Intensive chemotherapy is gruelling and many patients over 70 are not fit enough for it, so treatment is often aimed at control rather than cure. That is why the deaths from leukaemia lean so heavily towards later life, which mirrors the pattern on our 70 to 84 age group page.
The child survival gap
The most striking leukaemia statistic is not a death count. It is a gap. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 80% of children with cancer in high-income countries are cured, compared with fewer than 30% in many low- and middle-income countries. Leukaemia is the biggest single reason for that gap, because it is both the most common childhood cancer and one of the most treatable.
| Setting | Approx. childhood cancer survival | Main barriers |
|---|---|---|
| High-income countries | over 80% | Relapse, side effects of treatment |
| Upper middle-income countries | 50% to 70% | Late diagnosis, cost of drugs |
| Low-income countries | under 30% | No diagnosis, abandoned treatment, infections, drug shortages |
A child in a rural district of sub-Saharan Africa with the same leukaemia as a child in Manchester may never get a blood test, or may be diagnosed only when the disease is advanced. Families may stop treatment halfway because they cannot afford the travel or the drugs. Infections during chemotherapy, which a well-equipped ward can manage, can be fatal where antibiotics and blood transfusions are scarce.
The WHO's Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer aims to raise survival for children with cancer to at least 60% worldwide by 2030, with ALL as one of its six index cancers. Many of the drugs involved are old, cheap and off patent, which is why doctors describe childhood ALL as one of the most fixable inequalities in global health. It also sits within the bigger picture of child deaths we cover in how many children die every day and on our child mortality page.
Leukaemia in the UK and US
In the United Kingdom, around 10,000 people are diagnosed with leukaemia each year and about 5,000 die from it, according to Cancer Research UK. It is the most common cancer in UK children, with around 500 children diagnosed a year, most of them with ALL.
In the United States, the American Cancer Society's 2026 estimates suggest around 67,800 new leukaemia cases and about 23,900 deaths.
| Country | New cases per year (approx.) | Deaths per year (approx.) | Deaths per day (approx.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 67,800 | 23,900 | 65 |
| United Kingdom | 10,000 | 5,000 | 14 |
In both countries the death rate has been falling slowly once you adjust for age, thanks to better drugs, stem cell transplants and newer treatments such as CAR-T cell therapy for some relapsed leukaemias. The raw number of deaths is held up by an ageing population, because older people are far more likely to develop the adult forms of the disease.
Who is at risk?
For most people with leukaemia there is no clear cause. It is not contagious and in most cases it is not inherited. But a handful of risk factors are well established.
| Risk factor | What it affects | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Older age | AML, CLL, CML | Most adult leukaemias are diagnosed after 60 |
| Smoking | AML | Tobacco smoke contains benzene and other chemicals that damage marrow |
| Benzene exposure | AML | Found in some industrial settings and in petrol fumes |
| Previous chemotherapy or radiotherapy | AML, ALL | Treatment-related leukaemia can appear years later |
| High doses of ionising radiation | AML, ALL, CML | Seen in atomic bomb survivors and nuclear accidents |
| Down syndrome | ALL, AML | Children with Down syndrome have a much higher risk |
| Some inherited genetic conditions | Various | Rare, but important in families |
| Being male | Most types | Men are diagnosed more often than women |
Smoking is the one big modifiable risk, which is another reason the toll of tobacco runs far beyond lung cancer, as we cover in how many people die from smoking every day.
Signs that need a blood test
Because leukaemia crowds out healthy blood cells, its symptoms come from the shortage of those cells. They are easy to mistake for a virus or tiredness, which is why a simple full blood count is so powerful.
| Symptom | Why it happens |
|---|---|
| Tiredness, breathlessness, pale skin | Too few red blood cells (anaemia) |
| Infections that keep coming back | White cells that do not fight infection |
| Unusual bruising, nosebleeds, bleeding gums, tiny red spots on the skin | Too few platelets |
| Bone or joint pain | Marrow packed with leukaemia cells |
| Swollen glands, a swollen tummy | Leukaemia cells building up in lymph nodes, liver or spleen |
| Night sweats, fever, weight loss | The body reacting to the cancer |
Chronic leukaemias are often found by accident on a routine blood test, sometimes years before they cause any trouble. Acute leukaemias tend to make people unwell within weeks. Anyone with several of these symptoms together, especially unexplained bruising or tiny red spots alongside tiredness, should see a doctor promptly and ask whether a blood test is needed.
The trend, and what gives hope
Leukaemia deaths worldwide are rising in raw numbers because the population is growing and ageing, and because more people in middle-income countries now live long enough to develop the adult forms. At the same time, age-adjusted death rates have fallen in many wealthy countries over the past three decades.
The reasons for optimism are real. Targeted tablets have transformed CML and CLL. Immunotherapies and CAR-T cells are giving people with relapsed ALL a second chance. Stem cell donor registers mean more patients find a match than ever before, and anyone aged 16 to 30 in the UK can join one with a simple cheek swab. And for children, the tools to close the survival gap already exist: the challenge is getting them to every child who needs them.
If you want to see how leukaemia compares with other causes, try our compare causes tool. You can also read about another cancer where early action matters enormously in how many people die from melanoma skin cancer every year, and mark World Cancer Day each February.
While you were reading
In the twelve minutes it took to read this article, about 7 people around the world died of leukaemia, and around 1,400 people died from all causes. Some of them were children who could have been cured with drugs that cost less than a family car. You can watch the global count in real time or see today's running total.
Sources: International Agency for Research on Cancer, GLOBOCAN 2022; World Health Organization, childhood cancer fact sheet and Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer; American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts and Figures 2026 and key statistics for ALL, AML, CLL and CML; US National Cancer Institute SEER programme; Cancer Research UK, leukaemia statistics; Blood Cancer UK; Anthony Nolan. Figures are rounded and estimates vary between sources and years. This article is for general information only and is not medical advice. If you have symptoms that worry you, speak to your GP or doctor.
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