Instances of skin cancer among young Australians have decreased over the past 14 years, a report shows.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) revealed the rate of skin cancers diagnosed in people under the age of 40 has decreased by more than 30 per cent from 2002 to 2016.
In 2002 there were 13 cases per 100,000 people, compared to nine cases per 100,000 people in 2016.
According to the AIHW, long-running campaigns about the dangers of too much sun have had an impact and could be credited for the decrease.
But the report, Skin Cancer in Australia, also found the country had the second highest rate of melanoma in the world, with more than 13,000 new cases expected to be identified in 2016 alone.
That amounts to 49 cases of melanoma per 100,000 people compared to 27 cases per 100,000 people in Australia in 1982.
Nearly 1,800 people diagnosed with melanoma are expected to die this year.
A person diagnosed with melanoma has a 90 per cent chance of surviving at least five years – much higher than the survival rate of all cancers, at 67 per cent.
AIHW spokesman Justin Harvey said while the total number of new cases of non-melanoma skin cancer was unknown, it was estimated to account for more cases diagnosed than all other cancers combined.
“In 2016, an estimated 560 people will die from non-melanoma skin cancer, with a death rate of 1.9 deaths per 100,000 people,” Mr Harvey said.
He said hospitalisations for all types of skin cancer have increased significantly over the past decade.
In 2013-14, there were over 23,400 melanoma-related hospitalisations in Australia, a 63 per cent rise from 2002-03.
Over the same period, non-melanoma skin cancer-related hospitalisations rose by 39 per cent.