Six Million People, 118 Countries: What the Largest Map of Pain Yet Says About Who Hurts

“Everyone has back pain.” It is said so often that it sounds like a shrug. But how common is pain, really — and does it look the same for a 30-year-old in Lagos as for a 70-year-old in Lisbon? Until now there has been no shared yardstick. A study published in Nature Medicine on 5 October 2026 set out to build one.

What the researchers did

The team gathered individual-level, self-reported pain data from 902 population-based studies and surveys conducted between 1990 and 2025, covering 6,125,459 participants in 118 countries and territories, aged from five to over 100. Because surveys ask about pain in many different ways, the researchers first harmonised the wording and body-map coding into standard categories for 11 anatomical sites — head, face, neck or shoulder, back, abdomen, hip, knee and others. They then used statistical models to estimate how the probability of reporting pain at each site changes across the lifespan, by sex and by world region, and published the results as reference curves on an open-access platform that other researchers can compare their own data against.

What they found

Back pain was the most commonly reported pain, at roughly 40 per cent, while facial pain was the least, at about 2 per cent. At every one of the 11 sites, women were more likely to report pain than men, with risk ratios ranging from 1.08 to 1.83. Pain prevalence climbed most steeply before the age of 55.

The finding the authors highlight most runs against earlier estimates. Existing frameworks, which rely on clinically diagnosed conditions, have generally projected more pain in wealthier countries. This analysis of what people themselves report found the opposite in later life: people in the lowest Human Development Index countries had a substantially higher late-life prevalence of any bodily pain than those in the highest — a difference of about 30.6 percentage points — and low back pain approached twice the prevalence at the oldest ages. Globally, about 18.3 per cent of the pain burden was attributable to three modifiable factors — smoking, obesity and low income — but that share ranged from 12.6 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa to 27.1 per cent in eastern Europe. In other words, the factors behind pain in lower-income settings are not well captured by the usual list.

Why it matters in everyday life

The study is about populations, but its message lands at the individual level too. Pain has no objective biomarker; a person’s own report is the best measure there is. When a condition is as common as this — and consistently more common in women — the case for listening carefully and taking reports seriously is strong. The results also challenge a comfortable assumption that pain is mostly a problem of ageing, affluent societies. Much of the burden accumulates before 55, during working and caregiving years, and it falls hardest where access to care is weakest.

What this does not establish

• These are population averages. A reference curve cannot say why any one person hurts, and a woman with back pain is not “more likely to be exaggerating” or “less likely to have a cause” because of these numbers.
• Self-reported pain depends on how questions were asked, cultural norms around reporting, and recall periods. The authors harmonised these as far as possible, but differences remain.
• The 18 per cent attributable to smoking, obesity and low income is a statistical estimate of association, not proof that removing those factors would remove that share of pain.
• The study measured whether people reported pain, not how severe or disabling it was, which the authors note is rarely captured comparably across populations.

Questions you might discuss with your clinician

• If my pain is common, does that change how seriously it should be assessed? (It should not.)
• Which of the factors linked to pain in studies like this — weight, smoking, activity, sleep — could realistically be addressed in my situation, and with what support?
• How is my pain affecting my work, sleep and daily tasks, and can those be part of the treatment goals?

Frequently asked questions

How common is back pain according to this study?

Back pain was the most commonly reported pain in the study, at roughly 40 percent. Facial pain was the least common, at about 2 percent.

Are women more likely to report pain than men?

Yes. At every one of the 11 body sites studied, women were more likely to report pain than men, with risk ratios ranging from 1.08 to 1.83. These are population averages and do not mean a woman with back pain is exaggerating or less likely to have a cause.

Is pain mainly a problem of older people in wealthy countries?

The study challenges that assumption. Pain prevalence climbed most steeply before age 55, and people in the lowest Human Development Index countries had a substantially higher late-life prevalence of bodily pain than those in the highest.

Does the study show that quitting smoking or losing weight would remove part of the pain burden?

Not directly. The estimate that about 18 percent of the pain burden is attributable to smoking, obesity and low income is a statistical association, not proof that removing those factors would remove that share of pain.

Sources

• Global and regional reference curves for pain across the lifespan in 6.1 million individuals in 118 countries — Nature Medicine, 2026-10-05
• Study DOI: 10.1038/s41591-026-04696-w

This article is sponsored content by SEVA Healthcare and is for general information only — it is not medical or legal advice. Treatment options depend on an individual evaluation, and results vary from person to person. In an emergency, call 911. Spotted an error? See our corrections policy.