Louisiana’s statewide melanoma rate is below the national average, but that figure can mask substantial differences within the state. The Louisiana Tumor Registry reports more than 1,000 new diagnoses annually on average, and some parishes have rates that rival or exceed those in the hardest-hit states.
A Lower State Rate, With Local Hot Spots
Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, has seen a steady rise in both the U.S. and Louisiana over the past three decades, according to NOLA.com. Louisiana reported 324 new melanoma cases in 1990 compared with 1,226 new cases in 2023, according to the Louisiana Tumor Registry as cited by the outlet — nearly a fourfold increase. Nationally, the jump was similarly dramatic: the U.S. reported 12,755 new melanoma cases in 2000 and 27,093 in 2023, more than doubling over that span, per the same report.
That upward trajectory lines up with projections from the AIM at Melanoma Foundation, which estimates 234,680 melanoma cases will be diagnosed nationwide in 2026, including 112,000 invasive cases, according to AIM at Melanoma. That is up from the organization's 2025 estimate of 212,200 new cases, including 104,960 invasive diagnoses. The group also reports that the annual number of new invasive melanomas diagnosed has increased 16% over the past five years, 32% over the past ten, and 46% over the past fifteen.
Louisiana Still Ranks Among the Lowest
Louisiana ranked seventh-lowest among states for melanoma incidence as of 2023, according to registry data relayed by the outlet. The NCI’s 2019–2023 table reports an age-adjusted rate of 19.2 cases per 100,000 in Louisiana and 23.8 nationally. The outlet separately describes the U.S. rate as roughly 25 to 28 per 100,000; figures from different reporting periods should not be treated as directly interchangeable. High-UV western and mountain states post steeper numbers — Utah’s reported rate reached 43.8 per 100,000, attributed to the National Cancer Institute in the same report. A separate State Cancer Profiles search snippet put Utah’s rate at 42.7 per 100,000, though that figure’s exact reporting period was not established.
Death rates, meanwhile, have barely budged even as diagnoses climbed. The U.S. melanoma death rate stood at 2.7 per 100,000 in 2000 and fell to 2 per 100,000 by 2023 according to the National Cancer Institute, as cited by the outlet — meaning deaths have remained relatively unchanged even as new-case rates rose. Researchers have examined tanning bed use, changes in awareness and reporting, and sunscreen habits relative to sun exposure as possible explanations for the rising diagnoses, but studies have reached no definitive answers on the cause.
Which Louisiana Parishes Run Hottest
The parish-level breakdown shows wide variation across the state. St. Tammany Parish posts the highest rate in Louisiana at 35.5 cases per 100,000 people, exceeding the national average, while Union Parish follows at 29 cases per 100,000, also above the national average, according to Louisiana Tumor Registry figures reported by the outlet. Livingston Parish comes in at 27.9 per 100,000, and Ouachita Parish at 26 per 100,000.
Further down the list, Pointe Coupee Parish sits at 25.2 cases per 100,000, Washington Parish at 24.3, Ascension Parish at 23.7, Sabine Parish at 23.1, Bossier Parish at 22.8, and Vernon Parish at 22.1. The Louisiana Tumor Registry excluded data for Bienville, Caldwell, Cameron, Catahoula, Claiborne, East Carroll, La Salle, Madison, Red River, St. Helena, St. James, Tensas, West Carroll and Winn parishes because their case counts were too small to include.
Digging Deeper Into the Data
Louisiana's Tumor Registry also breaks down cancer incidence at the census-tract level, offering an even finer-grained look than parish totals. In its most recent report covering 2010 through 2019, 75 of 141 qualifying census tracts across 17 parishes had statistically significantly higher melanoma incidence than the state as a whole, and none had significantly lower rates, according to EurekAlert's coverage of the registry's release. The registry's own site notes it is “pleased to present cancer incidence data at the census tract level” for that decade, according to LSU Health New Orleans.
How to Read the Local Rates
The NCI’s State Cancer Profiles says its incidence rates are age-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. standard population. The table also suppresses counts below 16 records in a specific area-sex-race category, so parish rates summarize the 2019–2023 period rather than current-year counts; small-area differences should be read with those limits in mind. For the census-tract analysis, the Louisiana Tumor Registry combined 2010–2019 data to make more tracts eligible for publication. Its release says federal privacy and reliability standards require an underlying population above 20,000 and at least 16 cases. The report found 75 of 141 qualifying tracts had statistically significantly higher incidence than the state as a whole. That finding describes comparisons within the 2010–2019 analysis; it does not explain why rates differed or establish present-day rates, according to the Louisiana Tumor Registry.
For residents who want to look even closer to home, the registry maintains an interactive data tool covering 71 cancer reporting zones across Louisiana, and it links out to broader U.S. cancer incidence and mortality visualizations that let users compare Louisiana's numbers against other states. Those tools offer a way to track how local skin cancer trends stack up as the statewide and national case counts continue their decades-long climb.
