Switzerland has high rates of lung cancer by global standards, a phenomenon linked to high rates of tobacco use. Recently published data show a notable difference in lung cancer rates between Switzerland’s main linguistic regions. These difference also correlate with smoking rates.
The rate of lung cancer is 57 per 100,000 in Switzerland. For men it is 67 and for women it is 47. Age adjusted global equivalents are 32 and 21 per 100,000 respectively, less than half Swiss rates.
In French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland lung cancer rates are even higher than the Swiss average. The combined average for the French- and Italian-speaking regions are 61 per 100,000 compared to 55 per 100,000 in the German-speaking part.
These regional differences mirror smoking rates, which are higher in French- (28%) and Italian-speaking (32%) Switzerland than in German-speaking Switzerland (26%) – rates from Addiction Suisse 2017.
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