How Many People Die From Ovarian Cancer Every Day?
Ovarian cancer kills about 207,000 women a year, around 570 a day. Global, UK and US figures, survival by stage, symptoms to know and why it is found late.
Picture a woman in her late fifties who has started loosening the waistband of her jeans. For a few weeks she has felt bloated most days. She gets full after half a sandwich, needs the loo more often than usual, and has a vague ache low in her tummy. She puts it down to the menopause, a dodgy stomach, or simply getting older. Nothing about it feels like an emergency.
That quiet, ordinary beginning is the reason ovarian cancer is one of the most feared diagnoses in women's health. Its early symptoms look like a dozen harmless things, there is no screening test that works, and so most women are diagnosed only after the cancer has spread. Here is what the numbers show, and what can actually make a difference.
The headline number
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer's GLOBOCAN 2022 estimates, ovarian cancer caused 206,956 deaths worldwide in a single year, from 324,603 new cases. That is around 570 deaths every day, or roughly one woman every two and a half minutes.
To see where that sits among everything else, our live death counter shows the full global toll of around 170,000 deaths a day from all causes.
| Time period | Ovarian cancer deaths (approx.) |
|---|---|
| Per year | 207,000 |
| Per month | 17,250 |
| Per week | 3,980 |
| Per day | 567 |
| Per hour | 24 |
| Per minute | 0.4 |
The ratio between those two numbers is the story in miniature. Deaths are around 64% of new cases each year. For breast cancer, by comparison, the figure is under 30%, because most breast cancers are found early and treated successfully. Ovarian cancer is much less common than breast cancer, but far more of the women who get it die from it.
How it compares with other cancers in women
Ovarian cancer is not the biggest cancer killer of women worldwide, but it is the deadliest of the gynaecological cancers in high-income countries and one of the most lethal relative to how often it is diagnosed.
| Cancer (women, worldwide) | Approx. deaths per year | Approx. per day |
|---|---|---|
| Breast | 670,000 | 1,840 |
| Cervical | 350,000 | 960 |
| Ovarian | 207,000 | 567 |
Breast cancer kills more women in total, as we covered in how many people die from breast cancer every day. Cervical cancer kills more in low-income countries, where HPV vaccination and screening are still patchy. Ovarian cancer stands out because neither of those tools exists for it: there is no vaccine and no effective screening test. For the wider picture of what women die from, see the leading causes of death in women.
Across all cancers combined, around 10 million people die every year. Our guide to how many people die from cancer every day breaks that down by type, and the running count is on our cancer page.
Ovarian cancer in the UK
Cancer Research UK puts UK ovarian cancer deaths at around 3,900 a year, about 11 every day (2022 to 2024). That makes it the 15th most common cause of cancer death in the UK overall, and around 5% of all cancer deaths in women.
| UK measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Deaths per year | about 3,900 |
| Deaths per day | about 11 |
| Share of female cancer deaths | about 5% |
| Deaths in women aged 75 and over | 49% |
| Fall in mortality rate since the early 1970s | about 23% |
| Predicted 10-year survival (2018) | 39.3% |
There is some good news hidden in that table. Death rates have fallen by almost a quarter since the 1970s, helped by better surgery, better chemotherapy and newer drugs such as PARP inhibitors for women with certain gene changes. But ovarian cancer remains a disease of older women: almost half of UK deaths are in women aged 75 and over. You can see how death rates rise with age on our age 70-84 page and for the wider UK picture, our United Kingdom page.
Ovarian cancer in the United States
The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2026, around 21,010 women in the US will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and about 12,450 will die from it. That is roughly 34 deaths a day.
| US measure (ACS, 2026) | Figure |
|---|---|
| New diagnoses | about 21,010 |
| Deaths | about 12,450 |
| Deaths per day | about 34 |
| Lifetime risk of diagnosis | about 1 in 91 |
| Lifetime risk of dying from it | about 1 in 143 |
| Fall in death rate since 1976 | about 45% |
The US death rate has fallen even more sharply than the UK's. Part of that is better treatment, and part is something less obvious: decades of oral contraceptive use, which is linked to a lower lifetime risk of ovarian cancer. In a country where nearly 8,500 people die every day, as we covered in how many people die in the US every day, ovarian cancer accounts for a small share of deaths but an outsized share of fear.
Why stage at diagnosis matters so much
If there is one table that explains ovarian cancer, it is this one. Survival depends almost entirely on how far the cancer has spread when it is found.
| Stage at diagnosis (US, SEER) | Five-year relative survival |
|---|---|
| Localised (confined to the ovary) | about 93% |
| Regional (spread to nearby tissues) | about 75% |
| Distant (spread further in the body) | about 30% |
| All stages combined | about 49% |
UK figures follow the same pattern. Registry data put five-year survival at around 80% to 95% for stage 1, depending on the type of tumour, falling to just over 20% for stage 3 and somewhere between 5% and 8% for stage 4.
The problem is that the left-hand side of that table describes a minority of women. Roughly two in three women in the UK and US are diagnosed at stage 3 or 4, when the cancer has already spread through the abdomen. That single fact explains more about ovarian cancer deaths than any other.
Midway through this article, around 650 people worldwide will have died from all causes since you started reading. You can watch that count rising as you scroll.
Why there is no screening programme
It is natural to ask why women are not simply tested every year. The answer comes from one of the largest cancer trials ever run.
The UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) followed more than 200,000 women aged 50 to 74 for many years. One group was screened annually with a blood test and ultrasound, one with ultrasound alone, and one was not screened. Screening found more cancers, and found some earlier, but it did not reduce deaths from ovarian cancer.
| Common belief | What the evidence says |
|---|---|
| "A smear test checks for ovarian cancer" | No. Cervical screening does not detect ovarian cancer |
| "Annual scans would save lives" | The UKCTOCS trial found screening did not reduce deaths |
| "It is a silent killer with no symptoms" | Most women do have symptoms; they are easy to mistake for other things |
| "Only older women get it" | It is most common after menopause, but younger women can get it too |
Because of that evidence, the UK National Screening Committee does not recommend a national screening programme. The best tool we have right now is awareness: women knowing the symptoms, and doctors acting on them quickly.
The symptoms to know
Ovarian cancer is often called a "silent killer", but charities have pushed back on that phrase. Most women do have symptoms. The trouble is that they are vague, so they get blamed on irritable bowel syndrome, stress or the menopause. NICE guidance lists a cluster of symptoms that should prompt further tests in women, especially over 50. A popular way to remember the main ones is BEAT:
| Letter | Symptom |
|---|---|
| B | Bloating that is persistent and does not come and go |
| E | Eating less and feeling full more quickly |
| A | Abdominal and pelvic pain you feel most days |
| T | Toilet changes: needing to pass urine more urgently or more often |
Target Ovarian Cancer advises that the warning signs are symptoms that are frequent (more than 12 times a month), persistent and new for you. Other possible signs include unexplained tiredness, unexplained weight loss and changes in bowel habit. Irritable bowel syndrome rarely starts for the first time after 50, so new "IBS-like" symptoms in an older woman are worth checking.
None of these symptoms means you have cancer. Most of the time they are something else. But if they keep happening, the advice from NHS and charities is simple: see your GP, mention ovarian cancer by name, and ask about a CA125 blood test or a scan.
Who is most at risk
Most ovarian cancers occur in women with no obvious risk factor beyond age. But some groups carry a much higher lifetime risk.
| Risk factor | Effect on risk |
|---|---|
| Age | Most cases are diagnosed after menopause |
| Inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene changes | Much higher lifetime risk than average |
| Lynch syndrome | Raised risk of ovarian and womb cancer |
| Strong family history of ovarian or breast cancer | Raised risk; genetic testing may be offered |
| Endometriosis | Modestly raised risk of some types |
| Use of the contraceptive pill | Linked to a lower lifetime risk |
| Pregnancy and breastfeeding | Linked to a lower lifetime risk |
Women with a known BRCA gene change are often offered risk-reducing surgery to remove the ovaries and fallopian tubes once they have finished having children. It is one of the few genuinely preventive steps available, and it is a big decision best made with a specialist genetics team.
Where things are heading
Without better tools, the global toll is expected to grow as populations age. The World Ovarian Cancer Coalition projects that annual deaths could rise from about 207,000 in 2022 to around 350,000 by 2050, an increase of nearly 70%, mostly because more women are living into the ages when ovarian cancer is most common.
| Year | Projected ovarian cancer deaths worldwide |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 206,956 |
| 2050 (projection) | about 350,000 |
There are reasons for cautious hope. Research is under way into better early detection tests, into removing the fallopian tubes (where many of the most aggressive ovarian cancers are now thought to start) during other planned surgery, and into targeted drugs that keep the disease in check for longer. None of these yet replaces the most powerful tool of all, which is a woman recognising that something is not right and being taken seriously when she says so.
If you want to compare ovarian cancer with other causes side by side, try our compare causes tool, or read about another cancer that is so often found late in how many people die from pancreatic cancer every day. World Cancer Day each February is a good moment to share the symptoms with the women in your life.
While you were reading
In the eleven minutes it took to read this article, about 4 women around the world died of ovarian cancer, and around 1,300 people died from all causes. Most of those women first noticed something small: a waistband that felt tighter, a meal they could not finish. 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 Cancer Research Fund; Cancer Research UK, ovarian cancer statistics; American Cancer Society, Key Statistics for Ovarian Cancer (2026) and survival rates; US National Cancer Institute SEER programme; UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS); UK National Screening Committee; NICE guidance on suspected cancer; Target Ovarian Cancer; World Ovarian Cancer Coalition. 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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