Australia has one of the highest measured incidence rates of mesothelioma in the world (Bray et al. 2017; Huang et al. 2023). Each year, between 700 and 800 people are diagnosed with this rare and aggressive cancer, caused by exposure to asbestos. This report presents the latest available statistics from the Australian Mesothelioma Registry (AMR), supplemented by data from the National Mortality Database (NMD) and the Australian Cancer Database (ACD). 

The AMR collects information on new cases of mesothelioma diagnosed in Australia since 1 July 2010. The Registry’s main goals are to better understand the relationship between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma,  to provide evidence in relation to the potential effectiveness of current policies in how to deal with asbestos  still in the built environment, and to provide reliable information to policymakers and researchers. 

Main findings

• 617 cases of mesothelioma diagnosed in 2023 had been reported to the AMR as at 1 May 2024 – the median age at diagnosis was 77.
• Between 1991–1995 and 2016–2020, the age-adjusted relative survival of people with mesothelioma has increased, most notably 1-year relative survival increased from 36.2% to 48.5%. 
• In 2022, 685 deaths of people from mesothelioma were recorded, with an age standardised mortality rate of 2.0 deaths per 100,000 population, compared to 2.5 deaths per 100,000 in 2017.
• More than 9 in 10 people who had been diagnosed with mesothelioma and completed an AMR exposure assessment were assessed as having a history of possible or probable exposure to asbestos
• In the 2020–21 financial year, the estimated health system expenditure for mesothelioma cases was $33.7 million (total cancers $14.6 billion) (AIHW 2023a)