Share of deaths requiring palliative care (serious health-related suffering), by country

This statistic estimates the percentage of all deaths in each country that involve “serious health-related suffering” (SHS)—conditions that typically require palliative care (e.g., cancer, advanced organ failure, dementia, HIV/AIDS, severe neonatal conditions). It helps quantify the scale of palliative-care need beyond simple mortality counts, highlighting where health systems must provide symptom relief, pain management, and psychosocial support.

The estimates are derived by mapping causes of death to SHS-associated conditions and applying severity weights, following methods developed by the Lancet Commission on Palliative Care and Pain Relief and subsequent global modeling work. Countries with older populations and higher burdens of chronic disease tend to have higher shares; countries with higher child mortality or injury-related mortality can have lower shares even if absolute need is large.