The global need for palliative care (PC) has increased by 74% over the last three decades, rising to 73.5 million people in 2021, according to a paper published in The Lancet Global Health.
The study found that low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) account for 80% of those people with conditions requiring PC, where the need has grown by 83%, compared to 46% in high-income countries (HICs). It found that population growth accounts for only half of this increase, with the rest due to a rise in diseases and conditions that require PC.
Access to PC remains poor globally despite a growing need, and the authors of the new study highlight it as one of the most overlooked areas of health care. In 2017, The Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief (LCPCPR) developed a measure of the global need for PC, highlighting that each year tens of millions of people live with and die from serious health-related suffering (SHS), defined as health-related pain and impact on quality of life that becomes serious when it cannot be relieved without professional intervention.
The current study expands on the initial LCPCPR Commission report by using updated methods, and data that now cover the period from 1990 to 2021, providing a more accurate measure of the global need for PC due to SHS.
It found that while the need for PC due to infectious diseases has decreased in LMICs, the global numbers have remained stable and even rose following COVID-19, between 2019 and 2021. However, the need for PC due to non-communicable diseases like cancer, heart disease, and dementia has grown sharply, especially in HICs.
The authors say their findings underscore the urgency to reduce the burden of those suffering from conditions requiring PC through improved prevention and treatment, and the need to guarantee comprehensive, universal access to PC, especially in LMICs.
More information:
Felicia M Knaul et al, The evolution of serious health-related suffering from 1990 to 2021: an update to The Lancet Commission on global access to palliative care and pain relief, The Lancet Global Health (2025). DOI: 10.1016/S2214-109X(24)00476-5
Citation:
Global demand for palliative care has risen by 74% in the past 30 years, study finds (2025, February 27)
