Key Statistics for Ovarian Cancer

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The American Cancer Society estimates for ovarian cancer in the United States for 2025 are:

  • About 20,890 women will receive a new diagnosis of ovarian cancer.
  • About 12,730 women will die from ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths among women.

A woman's risk of getting ovarian cancer during her lifetime is about 1 in 91. Her lifetime chance of dying from ovarian cancer is about 1 in 143. (These statistics don’t count low malignant potential ovarian tumors.)

This cancer mainly develops in older women. About half of the women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer are 63 years or older. It is more common in White women than Black women.

Ovarian cancer diagnoses have been slowly falling over the past few decades. The incidence rate declined by 1% to 2% per year from 1990 to the mid-2010s and by almost 2% per year from 2012 to 2021. This is likely due at least in part  to more use of oral contraceptives and less use of menopausal hormone therapy. 

Fewer women are dying of ovarian cancer as well, likely due to better treatments and fewer women being diagnosed. The rate of ovarian cancer deaths has decreased by 43% since 1976. Most of this progress has happened since the mid-2000s.

Visit the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Statistics Center for more key statistics.

Written by
References

The American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team

Our team is made up of doctors and oncology certified nurses with deep knowledge of cancer care as well as editors and translators with extensive experience in medical writing.

American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2025. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2025. Available at https://www.cancer.org/research/cancer-facts-statistics/all-cancer-facts-figures/2025-cancer-facts-figures.html.

National Cancer Institute. Cancer Stat Facts: Ovarian Cancer. 2024. Accessed at https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/ovary.html on January 17, 2025.

SEER*Explorer: An interactive website for SEER cancer statistics [Internet]. Surveillance Research Program, National Cancer Institute; 2024 Apr 17. [updated: 2024 Nov 5; cited 2025 Jan 17]. Available from: https://seer.cancer.gov/statistics-network/explorer/. Accessed January 17, 2025.

 

Last Revised: January 16, 2025

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