SEPTEMBER 1, 2026
Study finds sharp rise in American women who have never been screened for cervical cancer
A study published August 27 in JAMA Network Open found that nearly 1 in 3 American women ages 21 to 29 had never been screened for cervical cancer in 2023, up from about 1 in 8 in 2005. The analysis drew on more than 106,000 women from a nationally representative CDC survey conducted between 2005 and 2023. Among women ages 30 to 65, the proportion who had never been screened rose from 5.3% in 2005 to nearly 15% in 2023.
A new peer-reviewed study has documented a significant increase in the share of American women who have never undergone cervical cancer screening, raising concerns among public health researchers about a preventable disease. The 2023 data indicate that about 6.2 million women ages 21 to 29 and approximately 9.2 million women ages 30 to 65 had never been screened.
The study also identified disparities across demographic groups. In 2023, about 44% of Asian women ages 21 to 29 had never been screened, compared with about 29% of White women. Among women ages 30 to 65, nearly 32% of those without insurance had never been screened, compared with 11% of those with private insurance. About 39% of young women with only a high school education had never been screened, versus 17% of those with a master's or doctoral degree.
Researchers found a related trend in cancer outcomes: among women ages 30 to 64, rates of later-stage cervical cancer increased by more than 2% per year after 2017, and rates of more advanced cancer also rose among women 65 and older. The study cannot establish that reduced screening caused these worse outcomes, and its reliance on self-reported screening history is a noted limitation.