Cancer now leading cause of death in Spain as interest in charitable wills soars
Cancer now accounts for 26.3% of deaths in Spain. In this context, more people are choosing to include social causes in their wills, and interest in charitable legacies reached record levels in 2025.
Published on 04/08/2026 - 15:43 GMT+2
Cancer has become the leading cause of death in Spain and, at the same time, more and more people are choosing to leave part of their estate to fund cancer research. The CRIS Contra el Cáncer foundation says interest in charitable wills grew by 49% in 2025 compared with the previous year, a trend that has almost quintupled over the past five years.
This increase comes amid a boom in this form of giving in Spain. According to data from the Haz Testamento Solidario platform, 2025 saw a record 9,413 people express an interest in this type of legacy. In the same year, participating organisations received 548 charitable wills, with a combined value of close to 50 million euros.
The foundation sets this growth against a backdrop in which cancer has firmly established itself as the main cause of death in Spain. According to the latest data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), the disease accounts for 26.3% of all deaths and has been the leading cause of mortality in the country for three years in a row.
Based on the organisation's experience, three out of four people interested in making a charitable will are women and, in many cases, patients, survivors or relatives who have lived with cancer. Assets typically included in these legacies range from homes, savings and pension plans to shares or rural properties, which are often divided between heirs and research projects.
