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Breast cancer rates in America

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. To mark the end of the month, USAFacts has new data on who is getting diagnosed with the disease, the factors that affect who gets screened, and more.

• Since 2000, breast cancer diagnoses for women ages 15–39 and 65–74 have increased. Diagnoses for women 40–64 and 75+ older have decreased. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted cancer screenings, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that may, in part, explain the drop in cases in 2020.

  
  

• Overall, there were 239,612 new cases of female breast cancer in 2020, down from 270,395 in 2019.

  
  

• A woman born in 2020 has a 1-in-8 chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime, according to the National Cancer Institute. Women born in the 1970s had less than a 10% lifetime risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer compared with nearly 13% in 2020.

  
  

Learn more about breast cancer rates by age in this article. And what factor leads to the widest gap in who does and doesn’t get screened? Find out if it’s race, insurance rates, or something else.

Rising disability complaints against airlines

Air travel can be a challenge for people with disabilities, as evidenced by the rise in disability-related complaints against US airlines in recent years. Last year, complaints more than tripled compared to 2020. How are airlines meeting the needs of passengers with disabilities and complying with regulations? Here’s the data.

• Allegiant Air had the highest rate of disability-related complaints in 2022, with 10.5 complaints per 1 million passengers, followed by JetBlue at 6.6 and Frontier at 4.4. Frontier had the biggest rise in complaints per passenger from 2021 to 2022, up 221%.

  
  

• Mesa had the fewest disability-related complaints per passenger in 2022, at 0.5 per 1 million passengers. Skywest and Endeavor each had 0.6.

• Disability complaints from passengers are up 167% compared to before the pandemic. The airline industry averaged 477 disability-related complaints annually from 1999 to 2019. The annual average rose to 1,462 complaints in 2021 and 2022.

  
  

Learn more here. USAFacts also has this ranking of the best and worst airlines for handling wheelchairs.

Data behind the news

A mass shooting in Maine on October 25 left 18 people dead and led thousands of people to shelter in place as towns locked down. Here is how the government defines “mass shooting” and related terms.

Last week, the government-sponsored Freddie Mac announced that mortgage rates climbed toward 8%. It was the longest consecutive rise for rates since spring 2022. Follow the 30-year average interest on fixed-rate mortgages.

Daylight saving time will end on November 5. Before you reset your clocks, here’s a reminder on the hows and whys of daylight saving time.

And don't forget to take the new Weekly Facts Quiz.

One last fact

The number of registered gasoline-powered vehicles per 10,000 people increased by 3.5% from 2020 to 2022. Registered electric vehicles grew 135% during the same period.