Stat Bite: Productivity losses from premature cancer mortality in 2022

Productivity losses from premature cancer mortality amount to an estimated US$600 billion worldwide, or 0.6% of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022. Panel A shows productivity loss per cancer death in 185 countries (US$) versus national levels of Human Development Index (HDI). Panel B shows the total productivity loss as a percentage of GDP (%GDP) versus HDI. Circles denote the 185 countries included in the GLOBOCAN database, colour coded to the four-tier HDI (low, medium, high, and very high). While productivity losses per cancer death tend to increase with increasing HDI and are higher in high and very high HDI countries, the inverse is seen for total productivity loss when expressed as a proportion of national GDP, which is higher in low and medium HDI countries. Sources: Kong YC, Niyigaba J, Tran PB, Vignat J, Bray F, Gauvreau CL, Hanly P, Pearce A, de Camargo Cancela M, Ortega-Ortega M, Bhoo-Pathy N, Ilbawi A, Meheus F, Soerjomataram I. Global paid and unpaid productivity losses due to cancer-related mortality. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2025 Sep 24: djaf193. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djaf193. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40987468. Global Cancer Observatory: Cancer Impact: Years of Productivity Loss. Lyon, France: International Agency for Research on Cancer. Available from: https://gco.iarc.who.int/economics/productivity_loss/ accessed [02 November 2025] Freddie Ian Bray (Writing—original draft), Yek-Ching Kong (Formal analysis, Writing—review & editing), and Isabelle Soerjomataram (Conceptualization, Writing—review & editing) No funding was used for this Stat Bite. The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. No new data were generated or analyzed for this Stat Bite.