Out now: the Global Atlas of Palliative Care, 3rd edition

Wednesday 14 October 2026

On World Hospice and Palliative Care Day at the 50th Montréal International Palliative Care Congress, the WHPCA launched the third edition of the Global Atlas of Palliative Care.

It offers the most complete picture yet of who needs palliative care worldwide, and who is receiving it. The picture shows real progress, but a gap that remains very wide.

73.5 million
people are estimated to need palliative care every year.

About 14%
of that need is met by specialised palliative care services. In low- and middle-income countries, only 4% of people in need receive it.

25,000 → 33,720
The approximate growth in specialised palliative care services between 2017 and 2025. Patients served rose from almost 7 million to over 10.4 million.

The Atlas also challenges some common assumptions:

• Most people in need (62.4%) require palliative care before their last year of life.
• Non-communicable diseases account for 73.6% of adult need. Cancer accounts for 27.9%.
• 10.6 million children need palliative care, and 96.2% of them live in low- and middle-income countries.
• 80% of the world’s population has little or no access to essential controlled medicines.

It sets out ten recommendations for national governments, from embedding palliative care in core health financing to building the workforce and increasing access to children’s palliative care.

READ THE ATLAS

Help the evidence travel!

Share the Atlas with your ministry of health, your colleagues, and your networks. Use the figures in your advocacy and tell your country’s story.

Thank you to the editors, every contributor, and everyone working to make palliative care available to all who need it.

With thanks,

Stephen R. Connor, PhD
Executive Director, Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance

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