1. A method of assessing breast density for breast cancer risk applications, comprising: receiving digital image data including a plurality of pixels; performing a statistical analysis on the digital image data to automate a determination of breast density (PD a ) by: applying a wavelet expansion to the digital image data to produce a multiresolutional representation comprising difference images (di images) and a low-resolution image; applying a signal dependent noise (SDN) analysis to at least one image of the multiresolutional representation to produce filtered image data; estimating a global reference variance signal from all pixels of a d 1 image that corresponds to a breast region of the filtered digital image data; moving a n×n pixel search window across the d 1 image, and for each n×n pixel search window location: determining a local variance; and determining if the local variance for each n×n pixel search window location deviates from the global reference using a chi-square test, and if so, labeling a respective n×n pixel search window location with a first designation, otherwise labeling the respective n×n pixel search window location with a second designation; producing a binary image with each pixel labeled with the first designation or the second designation; refining the global reference variance by moving a n×n pixel search window across locations of the d 1 image labeled with the second designation in the binary image; and determining that the locations labeled with the second designation are adipose image regions to provide a measure of risk for breast cancer.