We suggest that a record of the place of death should be incorporated into death-registration data as a useful additional health metric (Nature 494, 281; 2013).

End-of-life care is a major public-health issue, given the rising number of deaths from chronic illnesses that have multiple and complex symptoms. Knowing where people die can be an indicator of where they were cared for, which is important for allocating health-care resources and for assessing related public-health policies.

Despite surveys that show a prevailing preference for home death among patients, care-givers and the public, most deaths in Europe still occur in hospital (B. Gomes et al. BMC Palliat. Care 12, 7; 2013). We are supplying Portugal with such survey information to help improve the recording of place of death in its electronic death-registration system.

The place of death is registered in a few other countries (the United States and Canada, for example), but its categorization is inconsistent — sometimes even within a country. Location categories need to be internationally standardized (J. Cohen et al. BMC Public Health 7, 283; 2007) and this potentially valuable health-care resource put under the political spotlight.