Key Statistics for Childhood Leukemia

Leukemia is the most common cancer in children and teens, accounting for almost 1 out of 3 cancers. Overall, however, childhood leukemia is a rare disease.

About 3 out of 4 leukemias among children and teens are acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Most of the remaining cases are acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

• ALL is most common in early childhood, peaking between 2 and 5 years of age.
• AML tends to be more spread out across the childhood years, but it's slightly more common during the first 2 years of life and during the teenage years.
• ALL is slightly more common among Hispanic and White children than among African American and Asian American children, and it is more common in boys than in girls.
• AML occurs about equally among boys and girls of all races.

Chronic leukemias are rare in children. Most of these are chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), which tends to occur more in teens than in younger children.

Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) is also rare. It usually occurs in young children, with an average age of about 2. It is slightly more common in boys than in girls.

Visit the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Statistics Center for more key statistics.

For statistics related to survival, see Survival Rates for Childhood Leukemias.