Palliative care is needed by an estimated 56.8 million people worldwide each year, yet only about 14% receive it. The figures below distinguish modeled need from measured utilization, and palliative care from hospice, a specific end-of-life program.
Key Palliative Care Statistics
These highlights cover the most useful measures across global need, cancer care, U.S. hospice, outcomes and costs:
- In the annual worldwide estimate, 56.8 million people need palliative care each year.
- In the annual worldwide estimate, 25.7 million people needing palliative care are in the last year of life.
- In the WHO fact-sheet estimate, about 14% of people needing palliative care worldwide receive it.
- In the annual estimate, about 78% of people needing palliative care live in low- and middle-income countries.
- In the 2019 WHO survey of 194 Member States, 68% reported that palliative-care funding was available.
- In the 2019 WHO survey, 40% of countries reported reaching at least half of patients in need.
- In the annual worldwide estimate, adults older than 50 represent 67.1% of people needing palliative care.
- In the annual worldwide estimate, noncommunicable diseases account for almost 69% of adult palliative-care need.
- In the studies through April 2024, 34.43% was pooled cancer-patient palliative-care utilization worldwide.
- In the Africa subgroup of studies through April 2024, pooled cancer-patient utilization was 55.72%.
- Among U.S. Medicare decedents, hospice use was 51.7% in 2023.
- In U.S. Medicare, about 1.74 million beneficiaries received hospice services in 2023.
- In U.S. Medicare in 2023, the median hospice length of stay was 18 days.
- In noncancer trials, hospitalization was 38% with palliative care versus 42% with usual care.
- Across 43 randomized trials, quality of life improved at 1–3 months with an SMD of 0.46.
- In the hospital cost meta-analysis, direct hospital costs were reduced by $3,237 per patient.
- In the ACTION trial, 12-month average hospital costs were €32,700 with the intervention versus €40,700 for controls.
Contents
- Global palliative care need and access
- Palliative care by age, disease and geography
- Cancer palliative care utilization trends
- U.S. hospice and palliative care data
- Palliative care outcomes
- Palliative care costs and economic evidence
Global Palliative Care Statistics: Need and Access
The World Health Organization estimates annual need rather than counting people enrolled in services. That distinction matters because a need estimate includes people who may require care before the last year of life.
- The WHO estimates that 56.8 million people need palliative care worldwide each year, including 25.7 million people in the last year of life (WHO, “Palliative care”).
- The Global Atlas estimates that 31.1 million people need care before their last year of life, representing 54.2% of global annual need (Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life, 2nd edition).
- About 78% of people needing palliative care live in low- and middle-income countries (Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life, 2nd edition).
Access indicators show a large gap between estimated need and service reach. They are country-level or survey-based measures, not a complete patient registry.
| Measure | Result | Scope and period |
|---|---|---|
| People receiving care among those in need | About 14% | Worldwide WHO fact-sheet estimate |
| Countries reporting general NCD availability | 39% | Global country assessment |
| Countries reporting funding available | 68% | 194 WHO Member States, 2019 |
| Countries reaching at least half of patients in need | 40% | 194 WHO Member States, 2019 |
The access estimate and the 2019 survey findings come from the WHO (WHO, “Palliative care”). Availability, funding and reach are different measures and should not be treated as interchangeable.
Palliative Care Statistics by Age, Disease and Geography
The global distribution of need is concentrated among older adults and people with chronic disease, while children face a particularly pronounced geographic disparity.
- Adults older than 50 years make up 67.1% of people estimated to need palliative care worldwide, while children account for at least 7% (Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life, 2nd edition).
- About 76% of adults needing palliative care live in low- and middle-income countries (Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life, 2nd edition).
- Among children needing palliative care, 98% live in low- and middle-income countries (WHO, “Palliative care”).
For adults, noncommunicable diseases account for almost 69% of need. The WHO’s cause-of-need estimates are modeled categories and should not be read as prevalence rates among the entire adult population.
| Cause among adults needing care | Share of adult need | Geography and period |
|---|---|---|
| Cardiovascular disease | 38.5% | Worldwide annual estimate |
| Cancer | 34.0% | Worldwide annual estimate |
| Chronic respiratory diseases | 10.3% | Worldwide annual estimate |
| AIDS | 5.7% | Worldwide annual estimate |
| Diabetes | 4.6% | Worldwide annual estimate |
These cause estimates are reported by the WHO (WHO, “Palliative care”). Categories may not be mutually exclusive in the underlying modeling.
Cancer Palliative Care Utilization Trends
Cancer-specific utilization data measure whether patients received palliative care in the underlying studies; they do not measure global need across all illnesses.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies through April 2024 included 31 studies and 1,751,757 participants. Pooled worldwide utilization among cancer patients was 34.43%, with a 95% confidence interval of 26.60% to 42.25% (Palliative care utilisation globally by cancer patients).
| Subgroup | Pooled utilization | 95% confidence interval |
|---|---|---|
| Worldwide cancer studies | 34.43% | 26.60%–42.25% |
| Africa subgroup | 55.72% | 35.45%–75.99% |
| United States subgroup | 30.34% | 19.83%–40.86% |
The same review found statistical heterogeneity of I²=100%, signaling major variation among study estimates rather than a patient outcome. Positive attitudes toward palliative care pooled at 55%, with a 95% confidence interval of 35.26% to 74.80% (Palliative care utilisation globally by cancer patients).
In Ethiopia, a separate review found pooled utilization of 44.32% among adult cancer patients, with a 95% confidence interval of 33.33% to 55.32% (Assessment of palliative care service utilization and determinant factors among adult cancer patients in Ethiopia). These cross-sectional pooled estimates do not establish causation or provide national administrative counts.
U.S. Hospice and Palliative Care Statistics
U.S. Medicare hospice measures describe a defined program for eligible people near the end of life. Hospice is related to, but not interchangeable with, palliative care, which can begin earlier and alongside disease-directed treatment.
| Medicare hospice measure | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Use among decedents | 51.6% | 49.1% | 51.7% |
| Beneficiaries receiving hospice | — | — | About 1.74 million |
| Hospice days | — | — | About 138 million |
| Average lifetime length of stay | — | — | 96.2 days |
| Median length of stay | — | — | 18 days |
Medicare hospice users increased 1.3% from 2022 to 2023, while hospice days increased 5.7% to about 138 million in 2023 (MedPAC, Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy, March 2025). The average length of stay is affected by long stays and is not equivalent to the median.
For routine home care in 2023, patients averaged 3.9 in-person hospice visits per week, and the average in-person visit lasted about one hour (MedPAC, Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy, March 2025). CMS separately reports that approximately 1.8 million Medicare beneficiaries received hospice care and that Medicare hospice payments exceeded $27 billion in fiscal year 2024 (CMS, “Hospice Fast Facts”).
Palliative Care Outcomes: Symptoms, Quality of Life and Use
Outcome estimates vary by illness, intervention, follow-up period and measurement instrument. The following results come from systematic reviews and randomized trials, not universal guarantees for every patient.
A review of noncancer palliative-care interventions included 28 randomized trials and 13,664 patients, primarily adults with chronic noncancer illness (Association of Receipt of Palliative Care Interventions With Health Care Use, Quality of Life, and Symptom Burden).
| Outcome in noncancer trials | Palliative care | Usual care | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency-department use | 20% | 24% | 9 trials, 2,712 patients |
| Hospitalization | 38% | 42% | 14 trials, 3,706 patients |
| Symptom burden | SMD -0.12 | — | 11 trials, 2,598 patients |
| Disease-generic quality of life | SMD 0.18 | — | 6 trials, 1,334 patients |
The pooled odds ratio was 0.82 for emergency-department use, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.68–1.00, and 0.80 for hospitalization, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.65–0.99. Symptom burden had a 95% confidence interval of -0.20 to -0.03, while disease-generic quality of life was not significantly associated with palliative care: SMD 0.18, 95% confidence interval -0.24 to 0.61, with I²=87% (Association of Receipt of Palliative Care Interventions With Health Care Use, Quality of Life, and Symptom Burden).
Across 43 randomized trials of adults with life-limiting illness, quality of life improved at 1–3 months with SMD 0.46, and symptom burden improved with SMD -0.66. The review found no significant survival association: hazard ratio 0.90, 95% confidence interval 0.69–1.17 (Association Between Palliative Care and Patient and Caregiver Outcomes).
Palliative Care Costs and Economic Evidence
Cost results depend on setting, currency, price year, study design and whether the analysis counts hospital, outpatient, home or hospice care. Figures from different studies should not be pooled or converted without an explicit price-year method.
A U.S. cancer-care review of studies from 2008–2018 reported inpatient palliative-care cost reductions ranging from $1,285 to $20,719 per patient or study measure. Combined outpatient/inpatient reductions ranged from $1,000 to $5,198, home-based palliative services showed a reported reduction of $4,258, and home/hospice or combined-care savings ranged from $117 to $400 per day (The health care cost of palliative care for cancer patients).
A hospital meta-analysis among hospitalized adults with serious illness estimated a direct hospital-cost reduction of $3,237 per patient, with a 95% confidence interval of -$3,581 to -$2,893. The cancer subgroup reduction was $4,251 per patient, while the noncancer subgroup reduction was $2,105 per patient (Economics of Palliative Care for Hospitalized Adults With Serious Illness).
Only 3.6% of patients in the hospital-cost meta-analysis received a palliative-care consultation, with sample-level consultation rates ranging from 2.2% to 22.3%. Consultation identification varied across the included studies, so the result is not a universal coverage rate.
The international ACTION cluster-randomized trial evaluated advance-care planning, which is related to but not identical with specialist palliative care. At 12-month follow-up among patients with advanced cancer, average hospital costs were €32,700 for intervention patients and €40,700 for controls, a reported difference of €8,000 based on those means (Healthcare use and healthcare costs for patients with advanced cancer).