SYDNEY, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Australia and New Zealand have the highest rates of breast cancer incidence in the world, the Science Media Exchange (Scimex) online news portal reported on Tuesday.

In a new study, researchers from Australia and Canada analyzed the breast cancer incidence and mortality rates in 185 countries.

They found that one in 20 women globally will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime and that one in 70 will die from the disease.

However, the study found that the breast cancer risk is not evenly distributed throughout the world.

"Incidence rates were highest in Australia and New Zealand followed by Northern America and Northern Europe and lowest in south-central Asia," the research paper said.

It found that the age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) of breast cancer in Australia and New Zealand in 2022 was 100.3 cases per 100,000 people.

By comparison, in south-central Asia the ASIR was 26.7 cases per 100,000 people.

Nehmat Houssami, a co-author of the study from the University of Sydney, said that the high incidence rates in Australia and New Zealand could be attributed to their aging populations as well as lifestyle risk factors such as alcohol consumption, low physical activity and obesity.

The age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR) for breast cancer was the highest in Melanesia at 26.8 deaths per 100,000 people followed by Polynesia and western Africa and the lowest in eastern Asia at 6.5 deaths per 100,000 people.

Out of all the countries analyzed, France had the highest risk of lifetime breast cancer diagnosis and Fiji the highest lifetime risk of dying.

In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Global Breast Cancer Initiative (GBCI), setting a goal for countries to reduce breast cancer mortality by 2.5 percent annually.

The new research found that only seven countries -- Malta, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Slovenia -- are meeting the GBCI goal. Australia and New Zealand have reduced mortality by 2.1 percent annually over the last decade.

The research warned that breast cancer cases and deaths will increase by 38 percent and 68 percent respectively by 2050, disproportionately impacting countries with low Human Development Index (HDI) scores.

Authors of the study called for urgent action to address growing inequities in breast cancer survival rates worldwide -- particularly in countries with lower HDI scores.