National Cervical Screening Program

What is the National Cervical Screening Program?

The National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP) aims to reduce cervical cancer cases, illness, and deaths in Australia.

The NCSP began in 1991 and originally targeted people aged 20–69 for a 2-yearly Papanicolaou (Pap) smear, or ‘Pap test’ to detect precancerous abnormalities of the cervix.

From 1 December 2017, the NCSP changed to 5-yearly cervical screening for people aged 25–74, using a primary human papillomavirus (HPV) test with partial HPV genotyping and reflex liquid-based cytology triage (Cervical Screening Test).

Data in this report are for people aged 25–74 screened under the renewed screening program.

For the latest monitoring report for the NCSP that includes data from the National Cancer Screening Register, see the AIHW report National Cervical Screening Program monitoring report 2022.

Explore the latest activity and participation data on the following pages:

References

AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2022) National Cervical Screening Program monitoring report 2022, catalogue number CAN 141, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 6 December 2022.