Table 1. Five decades of cervical cancer screening: observed and projected (in a scenario without screening) number of incident cases and ASRs of cervical cancer, age 30–74.

		Cumulative number of incident cases, 1961–2010						ASR (per 100 000)
		Observed	Projecteda,b		Prevented by screening			Observed			Projecteda
					Cumulative		Average per year, 2006–2010	1961–1965	1986–1990	2006–2010	2006–2010
Country	Screening activitiesc	N	N	95% CI	N	%d	N
Denmark	1967, regional; 1996, national	25 704	53 210	48 038–58 806	27 506	51.7	1239	70.9	32.4	19.2	102.0
Finland	1963, national; 1971, completed	9410	15 133	12 814–18 136	5723	37.8	202	33.0	7.1	7.5	21.8
Norway	1970 s, opportunistic; 1995, national	15 146	24 603	21 555–28 393	9457	38.4	552	35.2	25.3	19.0	62.8
Sweden	1967–1973, national	24 556	42 777	38 018–48 312	18 221	42.6	647	39.7	16.2	13.6	40.0
Total	-	74 816	135 723	127 463–145 715	60 907	44.9	2640	-	-	-	-

Abbreviations: ASR=age-standardised incidence rate (world standard population); CI= confidence interval.

^aAssuming that the absence of screening activities would imply constant period effects.

^bModel-based confidence intervals for projections were obtained by simulation.

^cYear of onset and type of screening activity.

^dPercentage computed=(prevented cases × 100)/projected cases.