How Many People Die From Liver Cancer Every Year
Liver cancer kills about 758,000 people a year, roughly 2,100 a day. Hepatitis, alcohol and fatty liver, the countries hit hardest and UK and US figures.
Picture a market trader in Ulaanbaatar in her mid-fifties. She was infected with hepatitis B as a baby, like many people of her generation in Mongolia, and she has never had a day of symptoms. She has felt a little more tired this year, and her trousers are loose. A scan at the district hospital shows a tumour the size of a lemon in her liver. By the time liver cancer makes itself felt, it is usually already large, and that single fact explains most of what follows in this article.
Liver cancer is one of the most lethal cancers on earth. Most people who are diagnosed with it die from it, and most of those deaths trace back to causes that are either preventable or treatable years earlier: viral hepatitis, alcohol and fatty liver disease. Those deaths are part of the roughly 170,000 deaths a day you can watch adding up on our live death counter.
The headline number: about 758,000 deaths a year
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) publishes the GLOBOCAN estimates, the standard global count of cancer cases and deaths. For 2022 it estimated 866,136 new cases of liver cancer and 758,725 deaths worldwide. Peer-reviewed analyses of GLOBOCAN 2022 put the mortality-to-incidence ratio at 0.86. In plain terms, for every 100 people diagnosed in a year, around 86 people die of the disease in that same year.
| Time period | Liver cancer deaths worldwide |
|---|---|
| Per year | about 758,700 |
| Per month | about 63,200 |
| Per week | about 14,600 |
| Per day | about 2,080 |
| Per hour | about 87 |
| Per minute | about 1.4 |
That works out to one death from liver cancer roughly every 42 seconds.
Liver cancer is the sixth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world but the third biggest cancer killer, behind only lung and bowel cancer. It accounts for about 4% of new cancer cases but close to 8% of cancer deaths. For the full ranking of cancers, see how many people die from cancer every day or our cancer cause page.
| Measure (GLOBOCAN 2022) | Liver cancer |
|---|---|
| New cases | 866,136 |
| Deaths | 758,725 |
| Rank among cancers by new cases | 6th |
| Rank among cancers by deaths | 3rd |
| Share of all cancer deaths | about 7.8% |
| Global incidence rate (age-standardised) | 8.6 per 100,000 |
A note on definitions: "liver cancer" in these figures means primary liver cancer, mostly hepatocellular carcinoma, plus cancer of the bile ducts inside the liver. It does not include cancers that started elsewhere, such as the bowel, and spread to the liver. Those are counted under the original cancer.
Why so few people survive
The liver has no pain nerves inside it and a huge reserve of working tissue. A tumour can grow for a long time before it causes jaundice, swelling or pain. By then, it is often too big to remove, or the liver around it is already so scarred by cirrhosis that surgery is too risky.
The American Cancer Society publishes US five-year relative survival figures based on the SEER cancer registries for people diagnosed between 2014 and 2020.
| Stage at diagnosis (US, SEER) | Five-year relative survival |
|---|---|
| Localised (still inside the liver) | 37% |
| Regional (spread to nearby structures or lymph nodes) | 13% |
| Distant (spread to far organs) | 3% |
| All stages combined | 22% |
In England, the figures are similar or worse. Cancer Research UK data for people diagnosed between 2018 and 2022 show that about 44% of people aged 15 to 44 survive five years, but only around 10% of people aged 75 and over. Because most liver cancer is diagnosed in older people, overall survival sits at roughly one in five or fewer. Compare that with the near-90% five-year survival now seen for breast cancer in many rich countries, covered in our article on breast cancer deaths.
The four roads to liver cancer
Almost all liver cancer grows in a liver that has been injured for years. The 2025 Lancet Commission on liver cancer estimated how much of the world's liver cancer each major cause accounts for, and how that mix will shift.
| Cause | Share of liver cancer cases, 2022 | Projected share, 2050 |
|---|---|---|
| Hepatitis B | about 39% | about 37% |
| Hepatitis C | about 29% | about 26% |
| Alcohol | about 19% | about 21% |
| MASH (severe fatty liver disease) | about 8% | about 11% |
The Commission concluded that at least three in five liver cancers are linked to preventable risk factors, and projected that new cases will almost double, from about 870,000 in 2022 to 1.52 million in 2050, unless prevention speeds up.
Hepatitis B and C
Viral hepatitis is the single biggest driver. The World Health Organization estimated that viral hepatitis killed about 1.3 million people in 2022, and a large share of those deaths are from liver cancer and cirrhosis. We cover the infections themselves in how many people die from hepatitis every day.
The frustrating part is that both are now beatable. A safe hepatitis B vaccine has existed since the 1980s and is given to babies in most countries. Hepatitis C can be cured in most people with a short course of tablets. Yet most people living with either infection have never been tested, so they never get the chance.
Alcohol
Heavy drinking over years inflames the liver, scars it and eventually causes cirrhosis, which is the soil liver cancer grows in. The WHO estimates alcohol causes around 2.6 million deaths a year in total, and liver cancer is one part of that toll. Our alcohol page and how many people die from alcohol every day explain the wider picture.
Fatty liver disease
MASLD, the new name for what used to be called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, is the fastest-growing cause. It is driven by obesity and type 2 diabetes, and it is the reason the Lancet Commission expects the alcohol and fatty liver shares to grow while the hepatitis shares shrink. We look at the bigger picture in how obesity contributes to 5 of the top 10 causes of death.
For the overall burden of all liver disease, including cirrhosis, which kills around 2 million people a year when you add it all up, read how many people die from liver disease every day.
Where liver cancer hits hardest
Liver cancer is not spread evenly. It is concentrated in East and South-East Asia and parts of Africa, where hepatitis B has been passed from mother to baby for generations. China alone accounts for around four in ten of the world's cases.
The country with the highest rate in the world, by a long way, is Mongolia. According to World Cancer Research Fund analysis of GLOBOCAN 2022, Mongolia's age-standardised incidence rate was 96.1 per 100,000 people, more than ten times the global rate. The causes are a combination of very high rates of hepatitis B, C and D infection and heavy drinking.
| Country | Liver cancer incidence (age-standardised, per 100,000, 2022) | Main drivers |
|---|---|---|
| Mongolia | 96.1 | Hepatitis B, C and D, alcohol |
| Egypt | 32.0 | Historic hepatitis C epidemic |
| Cambodia, Laos, Thailand | among the next highest | Hepatitis B, liver flukes |
| World average | 8.6 |
Egypt is a striking case. A mass treatment campaign for the parasitic disease schistosomiasis, run from the 1950s to the 1980s with reusable needles, spread hepatitis C to millions of people. Egypt then ran one of the world's biggest test-and-cure programmes for hepatitis C, which should drive liver cancer down over the coming decades.
In Thailand and Laos, part of the burden comes from a different cancer: bile duct cancer linked to liver flukes caught from eating raw or undercooked freshwater fish.
Liver cancer in the UK
Cancer Research UK reports around 6,400 deaths from liver cancer a year in the UK (2022 to 2024), making it the eighth most common cause of cancer death. That is about 17 or 18 deaths a day, part of the roughly 1,800 people who die in the United Kingdom every day.
| UK liver cancer | Figure (Cancer Research UK) |
|---|---|
| Deaths per year | about 6,400 |
| Deaths per day | about 17 to 18 |
| Rank among cancer deaths | 8th |
| Change in mortality rate since early 1970s | more than tripled |
| Change over the last decade | up about 14% |
| Projected deaths per year by 2038 to 2040 | about 9,500 |
The UK pattern is different from Asia's. Alcohol, obesity and fatty liver disease dominate, and smoking contributes too. That is why UK liver cancer deaths have kept rising while most other cancer death rates have fallen. Cancer Research UK estimates that around half of UK liver cancer cases are preventable.
Liver cancer in the US
The American Cancer Society's latest estimates are about 42,340 new cases and 30,980 deaths from liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancer in the United States.
| US liver cancer (ACS estimate) | Men | Women | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| New cases | about 27,790 | about 14,550 | about 42,340 |
| Deaths | about 19,650 | about 11,330 | about 30,980 |
That is roughly 85 deaths a day. Men are about twice as likely to die of liver cancer as women, a gap seen in almost every country and linked to higher rates of drinking, smoking and hepatitis B among men.
Who gets it: age and sex
Liver cancer is mainly a disease of middle and older age. In high-income countries, most cases are diagnosed after 60. In countries where hepatitis B is common, it often strikes earlier, in the 40s and 50s, because the infection began at birth. A GLOBOCAN 2022 analysis estimated that liver cancer diagnosed before age 50 accounted for about 112,000 cases and 91,000 deaths worldwide in 2022.
| Factor | How it affects liver cancer risk |
|---|---|
| Sex | Men have two to three times the rate of women in most countries |
| Chronic hepatitis B | One of the strongest risk factors, especially if infected at birth |
| Chronic hepatitis C | Risk rises sharply once cirrhosis develops |
| Cirrhosis from any cause | The main setting in which liver cancer grows |
| Heavy drinking | Causes cirrhosis and raises risk directly |
| Obesity and type 2 diabetes | Drive fatty liver disease |
| Smoking | Adds to risk on its own |
| Aflatoxin (mould on stored grain and nuts) | Important in parts of Africa and Asia, multiplies hepatitis B risk |
If you want to see how your own lifestyle factors stack up overall, our Death Clock gives a rough estimate of life expectancy based on habits such as drinking and smoking.
How liver cancer deaths can be prevented
This is one of the few deadly cancers where prevention is genuinely within reach for most of the world.
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Hepatitis B vaccination at birth | Prevents infection, the leading cause of liver cancer worldwide |
| Testing for hepatitis B and C | Most people infected do not know; testing is the gateway to treatment |
| Hepatitis C cure | A course of tablets cures the infection in most people |
| Hepatitis B treatment | Antiviral tablets lower the risk of cirrhosis and cancer |
| Cutting down on alcohol | Reduces cirrhosis and liver cancer risk |
| Weight loss and diabetes control | Slows or reverses fatty liver disease |
| Six-monthly scans for people with cirrhosis | Catches tumours early, when they can be removed or treated |
Taiwan's newborn hepatitis B vaccination programme, which started in the 1980s, was the first to show that a vaccine could prevent a cancer: liver cancer rates in children and young adults who were vaccinated as babies fell sharply. The tools exist. The gap is getting them to everyone.
For more context on how liver cancer compares with other cancers of the digestive system, see our articles on stomach cancer and pancreatic cancer, two other cancers that are often found late.
The bottom line
Around 758,000 people die of liver cancer every year, about 2,080 a day. It is the third deadliest cancer in the world, and most people who are diagnosed with it do not survive five years. Yet the majority of cases come from causes that can be prevented or treated: hepatitis B and C, alcohol and fatty liver disease. The difference between a country with very high liver cancer death rates and one with low rates is largely a story about vaccines, testing and drinking.
While you were reading
This article takes around 12 minutes to read. In that time, roughly 17 people around the world died of liver cancer, most of them in Asia. Across all causes, around 1,400 people died in those same 12 minutes. You can watch that total rise in real time on our live death counter.
Sources: IARC GLOBOCAN 2022 (via analyses in the Chinese Medical Journal, 2024); World Cancer Research Fund, Liver cancer statistics (GLOBOCAN 2022 country rates); The Lancet Commission on liver cancer (2025); WHO Global Hepatitis Report 2024; WHO Global status report on alcohol and health (2024); Cancer Research UK liver cancer statistics (mortality 2022 to 2024, survival in England 2018 to 2022); American Cancer Society, Key statistics about liver cancer and liver cancer survival rates (SEER). All figures are rounded estimates and may differ slightly between sources and years. This article is for information only and is not medical advice. If you are worried about your liver or have risk factors such as hepatitis, speak to your GP or doctor.
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