10 Countries With the Highest Rates of Lung Cancer in the World

The 10 countries with the highest rates of lung cancer in the world come to show that the prevalence of the lung-related disease has seen a huge jump in the last couple of decades. Be it stress, genetics or poisonous air and living conditions, the factors which affect one’s cancer chances are far too much of a complex mess to be accurately predicted. Just like in the 11 countries with the highest cancer rates in the world, in all ten of these, cancer deaths take a considerable prevalence over what used to kill people in the past. Today’s lifestyle is increasingly unhealthy not only due to the amount of unconventional work we do today, such as staring into a monitor, but also due to the many comforts we have. We don’t exercise anymore and to make matters worse, we’ve turned coming up with more ways to be lazy into one of the most successful businesses.

Lung cancer is one of the most lethal forms of cancer. In fact, it is the most common cancer-related death for both sexes worldwide. However, for the most of you it would be bad news but to some it would be good – more than eighty percent of lung cancer cases are caused by long term exposure to tobacco smoke. This means that if you don’t smoke or stop as soon as possible, your chances of developing lung cancer are getting increasingly thin. However, exposure to several other dangerous substances also spikes your chances of developing this horrible disease. Those include a variety of toxic gases which the chimneys of factories and various industrial plants happily puff out daily. Another gas on the list is radon, which comes from the radioactive element radium. Asbestos is also a known culprit in causing a lot of trouble for your lungs, not excluding cancer.

Risky living conditions or not, the countries you are about to see have an unusually high incidence of lung cancer. The reason for that we will leave to you to figure out. Let’s take a look at them.

11. The Netherlands

The Netherlands is home to various types of smoking, the more controversial of which does not concern lung cancer much. However, the Dutch have long been known to be avid tobacco users, so it is no wonder that they have made it to this unfortunate list.

10. Canada

Now you can know for sure that maple syrup and being polite are not viable alternative treatments as Canada taking the tenth place in this list shows.

9. Poland

The Polish, like many other countries on this list, are avid tobacco smokers and from an early age. Poland takes the ninth place in this list with its lung cancer rates.

8. United States of America

The USA is the birthplace of probably the most popular brand of cigarettes which can be found almost worldwide. Aside from a staggering number of smokers, certain toxic factors might contribute to its rates of incidence too.

7. Denmark

Denmark actually has the highest cancer-related death rates in the world, as shown by a survey from 2012. By taking the seventh place in this list, at least we can know that the country’s cancer cases are not exclusively from the lung variety.

6. Montenegro

Only being the country it is today since 2006, Montenegro has a long history of switching rules and federations. One thing has been for sure, though, its people have been avid smokers from their early teens to their grave.

5. New Caledonia

New Caledonia can barely be called a country on its own as a special overseas territory of France, but it has enough sovereignty to qualify. New Caledonia’s population suffers as much from tobacco smoking as any other place but they also have certain cases of toxic exposure which should be noted.

4. Macedonia

Macedonia takes the fourth spot among the 11 countries with the highest rates of lung cancer in the world and not surprisingly. Most of its neighbors are on the list as well.

3. Democratic Republic of Korea

There has been a lot of controversy around China’s horrible air pollution but a lot of people don’t see how bad things are in South Korea. Aside from smoking, people are exposed to toxic smog more than ever.

2. Serbia

Many Serbians are sworn smokers from a very early age. Aside from that, there is speculation that some places in the country also suffer from radiation left over from military actions during the war there.

1. Hungary

Hungary takes the unfortunate prize of heading the list of the 11 countries with the highest rates of lung cancer in the world. Apparently Hungary’s population is a leader in smoking more than in any other related causes.