As of 2023, 2,732,906 people in Korea are counted as cancer survivors — in the National Cancer Information Center's phrasing, “one in every 19 Koreans (5.3% of the population).”
It is a large enough number to be read several ways, so this article answers three things. How common the disease actually is, what happens to people who get it, and what the figure is useful for. Everything here comes from the Center's own pages.
One in 19 — but not evenly by age
The first thing not to do is apply that ratio to every age group. More than half of survivors are 65 or older.
| Age | Survivors | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 65 and over | 1,408,234 | 51.5% of all survivors |
| 60s | 774,510 | Largest single decade |
| 70s | 616,281 | |
| 50s | 528,312 |
So “one in 19” is an average. It is far rarer among the young and far more common in later life. Counting one in 19 around a table of people in their thirties and around a table of people in their seventies are entirely different exercises.
By sex, 1,538,962 women against 1,193,944 men — 345,018 more women, or 1.29 times as many. That gap is almost entirely explained by a single cancer, which is covered in the thyroid cancer article.
2.73 million is not a count of patients
Reading it as “people currently ill with cancer” makes the number heavier than it is. The definition is explicit.
“A figure including both patients receiving cancer treatment and people alive after being cured”
Method — everyone diagnosed with cancer between 1 January 1999 and 31 December 2023 who was alive on 1 January 2024
— National Cancer Information Center, cancer prevalence
It is 25 years of accumulation and includes people who have been cured. Splitting it by time since diagnosis makes the composition clear.
| Time since diagnosis | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 2 years or less | 482,734 | 17.7% |
| Over 2 to 5 years | 552,373 | 20.2% |
| Over 5 years | 1,697,799 | 62.1% |
| Total | 2,732,906 | 100% |
Close to two in three were diagnosed more than five years ago. Those diagnosed within the last two years are barely one in six.
This is what “cancer has become a chronic condition” actually refers to. Not a turn of phrase but a composition: most of the 2.73 million are people diagnosed long ago who are still living their lives.
What happens to people who get it — 73.7% at five years
Across all cancers the five-year relative survival rate is 73.7% (2019–2023 diagnoses), splitting into 68.2% for men and 79.4% for women.
The cancers that rose most against 2001–2005 are listed alongside it.
| Cancer | Change since 2001–2005 | Five-year relative survival now |
|---|---|---|
| Lung | +25.9pp | 42.5% |
| Stomach | +20.6pp | 78.6% |
| Liver | +19.8pp | 40.4% |
All three of the largest gains are cancers that had low survival to begin with — and, as it happens, the ones with the smallest multiples in the next table.
Cancers behave nothing alike
Dividing survivors by that year's new diagnoses gives numbers of completely different shapes for what is nominally the same disease.
| Cancer | Survivors | 2023 diagnoses | Multiple | Five-year relative survival |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thyroid | 587,292 | 35,440 | 16.6× | 100.2% |
| Stomach | 366,717 | 28,943 | 12.7× | 78.6% |
| Breast | 354,699 | 29,871 | 11.9× | 94.7% |
| Colorectal | 340,064 | 32,610 | 10.4× | 75.6% |
| Prostate | 161,768 | 22,640 | 7.1× | 96.9% |
| Liver | 85,687 | 14,707 | 5.8× | 40.4% |
| Lung | 141,143 | 32,953 | 4.3× | 42.5% |
Put thyroid and lung cancer side by side and the table explains itself. The number diagnosed each year is almost identical (35,440 against 32,953, a gap of 7.5%), yet the number living with them differs by 4.16 times. When the same number arrive and a different number accumulate, what differs is how long people remain.
And indeed, five-year relative survival is 100.2% for thyroid cancer against 42.5% for lung. The larger the multiple, the higher the survival, as a tendency.
It is only a tendency, though. Prostate cancer has 96.9% survival but a multiple of just 7.1. The multiple also depends on when a given cancer started becoming more common, and we could not obtain incidence by year — hence “tendency” rather than a rule.
How to read a survival rate above 100
One value in that table catches the eye by exceeding 100. The word “relative” is the answer.
“Five-year relative survival — the probability that a cancer patient survives five years, compared with the general population.”
“A relative survival rate of 100% means survival equal to the general population; thyroid cancer exceeding 100% means that, on the figures alone, patients outlive the general population.”
— press coverage of a Ministry of Health and Welfare / Korea Central Cancer Registry release (January 2026). Not an agency text.
So 100.2% does not mean everyone survives; it is closer to indistinguishable from a comparable person without the disease. Because the baseline is the general population rather than certain survival, and the general population also dies of other things over five years, the figure has room to pass 100.
The article itself hedges with “on the figures alone.” Why it comes out above 100 is unexplained there and unverified here, so this is not to be read as “people with cancer live longer.”
What the number is actually for
Incidence and prevalence answer different questions. Incidence asks “how much of this is arising now”; prevalence asks “how many people in society have been through it.” Prevention and screening are incidence questions; care, return to work and long-term management are prevalence questions.
| Common reading | What the figures support |
|---|---|
| “2.73 million cancer patients” | 25 years of survivors including those cured — that is the definition |
| “Cancer means dying soon” | 62.1% are beyond five years; overall five-year survival is 73.7% |
| “100.2% survival, so it is a safe cancer” | It is measured against the general population, not a headcount |
| “Most diagnosed means most deadly” | Similar incidence, four times the prevalence |
| “One in 19, so it is common among my peers” | 51.5% of survivors are 65 or older — density varies sharply by age |
The actionable part is national cancer screening, covering six cancers: stomach, colorectal, liver, breast, cervical and lung. Eligible ages and intervals are in the national screening article. That programme is what works on the left-hand column above.
Overlaying the two facts — over half of survivors past 65, and 62% more than five years from diagnosis — produces a picture of people who finished cancer treatment and are ageing alongside other chronic conditions. What that population needs is not only cancer care: taking several medicines at once is covered in managing medication, and the conditions that arrive with age in bone health and maintaining muscle. The family side after a diagnosis is in caring for someone with cancer.
Questions people ask
One in 19 — does that mean someone I know?
The published phrasing is “one in every 19 Koreans (5.3% of the population),” but with 51.5% of survivors aged 65 or over, density varies sharply by age. It is far rarer among the young and far more common later. The ratio should not be applied uniformly.
Does five years mean cured?
The material does not say so. The statistics simply group by two and five years, without stating that five years is a medical threshold for cure. The definition of a survivor itself covers “patients receiving treatment and people alive after being cured.” That judgment belongs with your doctor.
Why does the count start in 1999?
The stated scope is “everyone diagnosed between 1 January 1999 and 31 December 2023.” Why 1999 is the starting point is not explained on the page, so the figure has to be read with “25 years of accumulation” attached.
Should I look at incidence or prevalence?
They answer different questions. Prevention and screening are incidence; care and long-term management are prevalence. News reports saying “2.73 million cancer patients” generally mean prevalence — which is 25 years of accumulation.
What if I notice something wrong?
This article reads statistics; it does not address symptoms. For deciding where to go, see emergency room or clinic. Anything worrying belongs with a doctor rather than a statistic.
Sources
- National Cancer Information Center — cancer prevalence (2023 basis). Source for the total of 2,732,906, the “one in every 19 Koreans (5.3% of the population)” phrasing, the composition by time since diagnosis (482,734 within two years at 17.7%, 552,373 from two to five at 20.2%, 1,697,799 beyond five at 62.1%), the totals by sex (1,193,944 men, 1,538,962 women), the age breakdown (1,408,234 aged 65 and over at 51.5%, 774,510 in their sixties, 616,281 in their seventies, 528,312 in their fifties), and the definition and method.
- National Cancer Information Center — prevalence by cancer type (2023 basis) and incidence by cancer type (2023). Source for survivors by cancer (thyroid 587,292, stomach 366,717, breast 354,699, colorectal 340,064, prostate 161,768, lung 141,143, liver 85,687) and for total incidence of 288,613 with the breakdown by cancer.
- National Cancer Information Center — cancer survival (2019–2023 diagnoses). Source for all-cancer five-year relative survival of 73.7%, 68.2% for men and 79.4% for women, survival by cancer (thyroid 100.2%, prostate 96.9%, breast 94.7%, stomach 78.6%, colorectal 75.6%, lung 42.5%, liver 40.4%, pancreas 17.0%), and the gains since 2001–2005 (lung 25.9pp, stomach 20.6pp, liver 19.8pp).
- Press reporting — not an agency text. Coverage of the Ministry of Health and Welfare / Korea Central Cancer Registry release (January 2026). Source for the definition of five-year relative survival and for how a figure above 100 should be read. The Center's own survival page carries neither the definition nor the formula, so the press wording stood in.
- The multiples and gaps are our own calculation. Survivors divided by diagnoses (9.47× overall, 16.6× for thyroid and so on), the 345,018 and 1.29× sex gap, and the 7.5% incidence gap against the 4.16× prevalence gap between thyroid and lung cancer were computed by us from the tables above and are not published figures. Cross-check: the three time bands and the two sexes each sum to 2,732,906.
- What we read into it. Reading “cancer has become a chronic condition” as the 62.1% composition, and the tendency for a higher survivors-to-diagnoses multiple to accompany higher survival, are both our own framing; no source presents them that way. We could not explain why prostate cancer departs from that tendency — incidence by year was unavailable, so it is left as a tendency. Note also that the sources here are effectively a single agency.
Where to check further
This article goes as far as the published statistics allow. The rest is best looked at here.
- The density in your own age group — still unavailable on a prevalence basis. No age-by-sex cross table is published, so “one in 19” could not be broken down by age. The confirmed figure stops at 51.5% aged 65 and over. On an incidence basis, though, the Center does publish incidence rates by age group and sex — incidence counts new diagnoses in a year, prevalence counts patients alive now. Useful as a substitute, but not the same number.
- The formula behind relative survival — we will update if an agency text appears. The Center's survival page carries no definition, so press coverage stood in, and the expected-survival calculation was not obtainable.
- What to actually do — checked here, at national cancer screening. Statistics take you this far; eligible ages and intervals differ from person to person. The agency guidance is the Center’s national screening programme page.
As of August 2026. All figures come from the National Cancer Information Center on a 2023 basis (survival on 2019–2023 diagnoses), and the multiples and gaps are our own arithmetic. This is general information about reading statistics and does not substitute for medical diagnosis or treatment. Anything worrying should be checked with a doctor.
