The official US cancer numbers come from two programmes combined

United States Cancer Statistics is the official federal cancer data. It is
not one agency's count: it **combines registry data from the CDC's National
Program of Cancer Registries with the National Cancer Institute's
Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) programme.**

Two programmes, one dataset — because neither covers the whole country by
itself. That is the reason the official statistics exist as a separate thing
from either source.

The data is used to understand the burden and the trends of cancer, support
research, measure the progress of control and prevention efforts, direct
action to eliminate disparities, and improve outcomes.

The most recent figures

The two numbers are from different years on purpose. **2023 is the most recent
year with incidence data available, and 2024 the most recent with mortality
data** — counting new diagnoses takes longer than counting deaths, so the
figures always run a year apart.

The visualisation tool

The data visualisation tool at gis.cdc.gov/Cancer/USCS makes the same
official figures explorable rather than tabular. It covers:

• US cancer rates by state — rates or counts of new cases and of deaths,
  nationally and for each state, plus the top 10 cancers in men and in women
• Demographics — rates or counts by race or ethnic group, sex and age
  group
• Trends — how rates of new cases and of deaths have changed over time,
  nationally and by state

The demographic breakdown is what makes the "eliminate disparities" purpose
above actionable: a national rate tells you the size of the problem, and a
rate by group and state tells you where it falls.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.