A steep rise in malignant melanomas is shown in offical figures for the incidence of different cancers, released yesterday. Over the past ten years the variety of skin cancer has increased by 43 per cent in men and 20 per cent in women andis now the ninth most common cancer in men and the seventh most common in women.

The primary cause is exposure to sunlight, especially but not exclusively in childhood. In 2005, 847 Scots were diagnosed with malignant melanoma.

Other cancer types that have increased significantly in ten years are uterine (up 18 per cent), testicular (up 26 per cent) and non-melanoma skin cancers, which are up approximately 27 per cent in men and women.

There has been a fall over the same period in cancers of the stomach (29 per cent decrease in males and females), the cervix and oesophagus in females (down 29 per cent and 12 per cent respectively), and the pancreas in males (13 per cent down).

Generally, the figures show that we are slightly less likely to get cancer, although actual numbers of cases have risen, largely because of the ageing population.

Almost 13,000 men and 14,000 women were diagnosed with cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) in 2005. These figures are slightly lower than in 2004 and are expected to increase slightly.

Lung cancer is the most common cancer overall and is the most common cancer in males, although the incidence rate has fallen 23 per cent over the last ten years.

Breast cancer - up 9 per cent over the past decade - remains the most common cancer in women. This is partly due to increased detection by the Scottish breast screening programme. Prostate cancer has risen approximately 14 per cent over the period, also due in part to increased detection.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common type in males and females, although rates have fallen by 11 per cent in women and by 5 per cent in men.

Overall, 2 per cent of males and 3 per cent of females in Scotland are estimated to be living with cancer.

Teenage girls from deprived areas remain four times as likely to get pregnant as those from middle-class areas. In mainland areas in 2004-06, Argyll and Bute recorded the lowest rate of teenage pregnancy (1.5 per 1,000), compared with 15.3 per 1,000 in Dundee among girls aged under 16 and 71.1 per 1,000 among those under 18. Overall, the number of pregnancies has remained fairly stable for a decade, although in the under-16 age group the rate has risen slightly to 7 per 1,000.

Glasgow has Scotland's highest rate of hospital admissions from alcohol-related conditions. In the east and southeast of the city, and in the southeast Highland region, more than 3 per cent of the population was admitted to hospital at least once because of alcohol between 2004 and 2006.

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