The 1990 national rates of the EU-15 member countries were measured by population-based cancer registries in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, UK and Ireland. For the other member states national figures were obtained by modelling national mortality rates and regional incidence rates, or by combining and modelling mortality and site-specific survival rates as described in Black et al., 1997.

National rates between 2000 and 2002 were available from registries in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Malta. For the other EU-27 member states national figures were obtained by modelling national mortality rates and regional incidence rates as described in the referenced article. Modelling was applied to project rates to 2006 as described in Ferlay et al., 2007.

Also see Estimated incidences, survival rates and trend in mortality of breast cancer throughout Europe (interactive - click on Indicators to select desired topic).