In the U.S., people in several Southern states are dying from colorectal cancer at a rate about twice as high as in the states with the lowest rates, after accounting for differences in age distribution.

From 1999 to 2020, Non-Hispanic Black adults in the U.S. died from early-onset colorectal cancer at a higher rate per 10,000 people than any other racial or ethnic group, after accounting for differences in age distribution.

From 2001 to 2020, early-onset colorectal cancer was most common in the southern U.S., but its numbers grew slowly there; in the western U.S., it started less common but increased faster, showing different patterns of growth between the two regions.

Between 2001 and 2020, the number of new cases of colorectal cancer in adults aged 20 to 54 rose in every region of the United States, with the fastest increase in the West and the slowest in the South, showing that different areas experienced different rates of growth in this disease.

Between 1999 and 2020, the number of deaths from colorectal cancer among U.S. adults aged 25 to 44 rose slightly, from 2.1 to 2.6 deaths per 10,000 people, after accounting for changes in age distribution.

Since 2004, the number of deaths from colorectal cancer has risen by 1% each year among people under 50 in the United States, even as deaths from this cancer have decreased in older adults. This suggests that more younger people are being diagnosed and dying from the disease.