Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the third most common urologic malignancy worldwide, with clear cell subtype being the most common. In this study, we sought to investigate RCC incidence and mortality trends by demographic and tumor characteristics using data from the surveillance, epidemiology and end results (SEER) database. Methods: We used SEER database to study RCC cases between 1973 and 2014. Incidence and mortality rates were calculated by sex, age, race, state, stage, size, and histological subtype of RCC. Annual percent change (APC) was calculated using joinpoint regression software. Results: A total of 96,058 RCC cases were identified, with 54,000 RCC deaths between 1973 and 2014. Overall incidence was 9.712 per 100,000 persons-years, being highest among males (13.698), blacks (11.886), and people older than 65 years (38.693). Incidence rates of localized cases (5.845) and tumors smaller than 7 cm (6.550) were higher than other tumor subgroups with distant disease incidence of 1.773 per 100,000 persons-years. Overall incidence rates increased by 2.709% (95% CI, 2.544-2.875, p < .001) per year over the study period, but rates became stable since 2007 with only an increase in the incidence of clear-cell subtype (2.538%; 95% CI, 1.300-3.791, p < .001). Overall RCC mortality rates have been declining since 2000, and distant disease mortality have been decreasing since 2008 with most profound decline in the period between 2012 and 2014 with APC of -22.635% (-37.419- -4.359, P = .019) Conclusions: Despite overall increase in rates over the last 40 years, recent years have shown stable incidence and decrease in mortality rates of RCC. The significant decline in mortality over the last 10 years since the approval of the first Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor ‘VEGF’ inhibitor highlights the impact of this class of medications along with other subsequent agents such as mTOR inhibitors and checkpoint inhibitors on the prognosis of renal cell carcinoma.