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What you should know about this indicator

  • Values come from the administrative records of national organized screening programs, not from population surveys. Screening done outside these programs, for example by general practitioners, is not counted.
  • Coverage is the share of people in a program's target population who were screened within the recommended interval. Several countries use age ranges or screening intervals that differ from the standard ones described here, and Eurostat flags such values as following a different definition.
  • Countries without an organized program for a given cancer, or that cannot compile program data, are not shown.
  • Countries report with a lag, so the most recent year usually has values for only some of them, and recent values can be revised in later releases.

How is this data described by its producer - Eurostat?

Administrative data on colorectal screening are based on screening programs. The indicator covering colorectal screening is defined in line with the 2003 Council Recommendation on cancer screening (2003/878/EC). It concerns the proportion of the target population who have undergone colorectal cancer screening based on the country's colorectal cancer screening policy, which defines, among others, the target age range and the screening method and interval. The recommended age range is 50 to 74 years and the recommended frequency is every 2 years; however, most countries define their own age range and frequency.

Colon and rectum cancer screening coverage in Europe
Eurostat
Share of people aged 50 to 74 years who have been screened for colon and rectum cancer within the previous 2 years.
Source
Eurostat (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
September 2, 2026
Next expected update
September 2027
Date range
2008–2025
Unit
%

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Eurostat – Preventive cancer screenings - program data

Administrative data from national cancer screening programs in European countries, for three cancers: breast cancer (ICD-10 code C50), cervical cancer (C53), and colorectal cancer (C18-C21, malignant neoplasms of the colon, rectosigmoid junction, rectum, anus and anal canal).

Values are the share of the target population (people eligible for the organized screening program) who were screened within the recommended interval. The indicators are defined in line with the 2003 Council Recommendation on cancer screening (2003/878/EC): women aged 50 to 69 years screened for breast cancer within the previous 2 years; women aged 20 to 69 years screened for cervical cancer within the previous 3 years; and people aged 50 to 74 years screened for colorectal cancer within the previous 2 years (or according to the screening frequency recommended in each country). In practice, several countries use different age ranges and screening intervals in their national programs, and some countries have no organized program for a given cancer.

Eurostat flags some observations as estimated, as having a definition that differs from the standard one, or as a break in the time series.

Retrieved on
September 2, 2026
Retrieved from
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/hlth_ps_prev/default/table?lang=en
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
European Commission, Eurostat, Preventive cancer screenings - program data, https://doi.org/10.2908/HLTH_PS_PREV [2026-09-02]

Administrative data from national cancer screening programs in European countries, for three cancers: breast cancer (ICD-10 code C50), cervical cancer (C53), and colorectal cancer (C18-C21, malignant neoplasms of the colon, rectosigmoid junction, rectum, anus and anal canal).

Values are the share of the target population (people eligible for the organized screening program) who were screened within the recommended interval. The indicators are defined in line with the 2003 Council Recommendation on cancer screening (2003/878/EC): women aged 50 to 69 years screened for breast cancer within the previous 2 years; women aged 20 to 69 years screened for cervical cancer within the previous 3 years; and people aged 50 to 74 years screened for colorectal cancer within the previous 2 years (or according to the screening frequency recommended in each country). In practice, several countries use different age ranges and screening intervals in their national programs, and some countries have no organized program for a given cancer.

Eurostat flags some observations as estimated, as having a definition that differs from the standard one, or as a break in the time series.

Retrieved on
September 2, 2026
Retrieved from
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/hlth_ps_prev/default/table?lang=en
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
European Commission, Eurostat, Preventive cancer screenings - program data, https://doi.org/10.2908/HLTH_PS_PREV [2026-09-02]

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

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  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Colon and rectum cancer screening coverage in Europe”, part of the following publication: Saloni Dattani, Veronika Samborska, Hannah Ritchie, and Max Roser (2024) - “Cancer”. Data adapted from Eurostat. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260904-135303/grapher/colon-and-rectum-cancer-screening-coverage-in-europe.html [online resource] (archived on September 4, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Eurostat (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Eurostat (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Colon and rectum cancer screening coverage in Europe – Eurostat” [dataset]. Eurostat, “Preventive cancer screenings - program data” [original data]. Retrieved September 4, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260904-135303/grapher/colon-and-rectum-cancer-screening-coverage-in-europe.html (archived on September 4, 2026).

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