This category includes all deaths from all types of cancer, many of which are mapped individually in this atlas.

This category has accounted for 3.7 million deaths over the 24 years covered in this atlas, which have been almost evenly split between males (52%) and females (48%). The average age at death is 70.9. Nearly a quarter of deaths from cancer were due to lung cancer.

For all cancers in the south of England or in Wales, only in one part of London has a rate of 30% above the national average been recorded. In contrast, in the centres of many northern cities there are clusters of rates 30%, 40% or 50% above the national average, the most prominent being within Glasgow. Few areas in Scotland record rates below 90% of the national average. In the north of England such lower rates are only common in north Yorkshire and the more affluent parts of Lancashire. This overall pattern is largely a reflection of the smoking and poverty gradient across Britain, although there are many other causal factors implicated in cancer deaths. There is also evidence that non-smokers were more likely to migrate out of areas such as the poorer parts of Glasgow than were smokers over the course of these years, so differential migration also accounts for part of the patterns seen.