Over the past decades, lots of advance have occurred in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of head and neck cancer (HNC). However, the contemporaneous incidence and survival trends, on the basis of population-based registry, have not been reported.The HNC cancer cases were accessed from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. The incidence trend was analyzed by joinpoint analysis, with the survival trend being analyzed by period analysis of relative survival rate (RSR) and Kaplan-Meier analyses. Cox regression analysis was performed to identify the prognostic factors for overall survival.The general incidence trend of HNC increases slightly, with an average annual percentage change of 0.6%, along with five fluctuating segments. The improvement of net survival over the past decades was showed by increasing 60-month RSR, from 54.1% to 56.0% to 60.9% to 66.8%, which was further confirmed by Kaplan-Meier analyses. Moreover, disparities in incidence and survival patterns can be observed in different subgroups.A fluctuating incidence pattern and an ever-improving survival were observed in HNC over time.Copyright © 2021 Kangwen Guo et al.