The rate of people who are still alive five years after being diagnosed with lung cancer is 21.7 percent in the U.S., up from 17.2 percent a decade ago, according to the American Lung Association's State of Lung Cancer 2019 report.
To determine five-year survival rates for lung cancer, researchers gathered data from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries for lung cancer cases diagnosed between 2009 and 2015.
Survival data was not available for five states and the District of Columbia because they either do not track cases after diagnosis or because of data-sharing restrictions. The list includes ties and results in a numerical listing of 36.
The 45 U.S. states ranked by five-year lung cancer survival rates:
1. New York: 26.4 percent
Connecticut: 26.4 percent
2. Minnesota: 26 percent
3. Maryland: 25.6 percent
4. Colorado: 25.3 percent
5. New Jersey: 25 percent
6. New Hampshire: 24.8 percent
7. Illinois: 23.8 percent
8. Rhode Island: 23.7 percent
9. North Dakota: 23.3 percent
10. Michigan: 23.2 percent
11. Florida: 23.1 percent
Vermont: 23.1 percent
12. Oregon: 22.7 percent
13. Pennsylvania: 22.6 percent
14. Washington: 22.5 percent
15. Wisconsin: 22.3 percent
16. Maine: 21.9 percent
17. Delaware: 21.6 percent
18. California: 21.5 percent
North Carolina: 21.5 percent
19. Virginia: 21.4 percent
Utah: 21.4 percent
Arizona: 21.4 percent
20. Texas: 20.9 percent
21. Idaho: 20.7 percent
22. Nebraska: 20.6 percent
23. Montana: 20 percent
Ohio: 20 percent
24. Missouri: 19.6 percent
New Mexico: 19.6 percent
25. South Carolina: 19.5 percent
26. Georgia: 19.3 percent
27. Wyoming: 19.2 percent
28. Iowa: 19.1 percent
29. Hawaii: 18.7 percent
Tennessee: 18.7 percent
30. West Virginia: 18.2 percent
31. Arkansas: 18.1 percent
32. Oklahoma: 17.7 percent
33. Alaska: 17.6 percent
Kentucky: 17.6 percent
34. Louisiana: 17 percent
35. Mississippi: 16.9 percent
36. Alabama: 16.8 percent