Nearly five million women have missed their latest smear test. At the end of December last year, a third of women and people with a cervix aged 25 to 49 (32.9%) and a quarter of those aged 50 to 64 (25.5%) were not up to date with their cervical screening.
This week is Cervical Screening Awareness Week (June 20 to 26), and charities are encouraging those eligible to get their tests booked. Screening coverage for those aged 25 to 49, who should be tested every three years, was 67.1% across England at the end of December 2021.
That means of those eligible to be screened, 3.5 million in this age group across England were not up to date with the vital health check at the end of last year. Meanwhile, those aged 50 to 64 should be tested every five years.\u0009Across England, 74.5% of those in this age group were up to date with screening at the end of December, leaving 1,359,585 unchecked.
