Melanoma rates in Australia have nearly doubled in recent decades and the sunburnt country now has the world's second highest incidence of the skin cancer.
An estimated 1800 people in Australia will die from melanoma this year and 13,300 new cases will be diagnosed, according a major skin cancer report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on Wednesday. 
An estimated two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer by the age of 70. 
The AIHW report shows melanoma rates in Australia have nearly doubled since 1982, but there has been a drop in the rates of young people under 40 getting the disease.
"The rates for skin cancer continue to be high in Australia, but there are some encouraging results in relation to younger ages starting to decrease, but it would still be good to see some further improvements," AIHW spokesman Justin Harvey said.
"It's difficult to know the reason for the increase [in melanoma rates], but it could be due more detection of skin cancer and detecting skin cancers early is a good thing in terms of they have a better prognosis for treatment."
Survival from melanoma is relatively high, with people diagnosed with the disease between 2007 and 2011 having a 90 per cent of surviving at least five years. 
Mr Harvey said Australia had high UV radiation and a population that "enjoys being outdoors and the sunshine". A high proportion of Australians also had skin types that burnt easily, he said. 
"All of those things can lead to higher rates of skin cancers," he said. 
Australia's has the world's second highest melanoma rates, second only to New Zealand. 
Mr Harvey said although the exact number of new non-melanoma skin cancers was unknown, they were still common. 
Non-melanoma skin cancers were estimated to account for more diagnoses than all other cancers combined. 
An estimated 560 people will die from non-melanoma skin cancers in Australia this year. 
Almost $137 million in Medicare benefits were paid for skin cancer services in 2014, the report showed.
Hospitalisation for skin cancers has also increased over time, with the report finding hospitalisation for melanoma rose 63 per cent between 2002-03 and 2013-14 and 39 per cent for non-melanoma skin cancers in the same period.