The contribution of each of the team members and part-ners, along with input from many other unnamed people, has been vital to the success of this project. Assistance in preparing the Atlas for publication was received from Tushita Bosonet (graphic design), Steve Ewart (maps) and Barbara Campanini (editing).There is considerable information available that the global burden of neurological disorders is large and increasing. Very little is known, however, about the resources available within countries to meet this burden. Most information about resources for the care of people with neurological disorders pertains to a few developed countries; little is known at present about the situation in the vast majority of countries, and the information that is available is not comparable across different countries or over time.To fill this knowledge gap, Project Atlas was launched by WHO in 2000 with the object of collecting, compiling and disseminating relevant information on health-care resources in countries. The first publication of the project provided regional and world figures on mental health resources in an illustrated Atlas of Mental Health Resources in the World 2001. WHO decided to expand the Atlas project into the area of neurology and neurological services, as the next log-ical step in the work of WHO in assessing country resource– and consequently country needs – to control mental and neurological disorders.All information and data contained in the Atlas of Country Resources for Neurological Disorders (the Neurology Atlas) were collected from a large international study carried out in 2001–2003, which included 109 countries spanning all six WHO regions and covering over 90% of the world popula-tion. The World Federation of Neurology (WFN) collabo-rated closely in the collection and analysis of the data and the development of the Neurology Atlas, with the active participation of leading experts in neurology all over the world and valuable assistance from WHO regional advisers and WHO country representatives.The Neurology Atlas illustrates the current status of neuro-logical services and provision of neurological care in various parts of the world. In general, results obtained objectively confirm that the available resources for neurological dis-orders in most countries of the world are insufficient com-pared with the known significant burden associated with these disorders. In addition, there are large inequalities across regions and income groups of countries, with low-income countries having extremely scanty resources.We believe that the information presented in this volume will be useful for a large range of readers including policy-makers, health planners and specialists on international as well as national level. The results of the Neurology Atlas clearly establish the need for substantial increase in the neurology services especially in low and low-middle income countries to decrease the inequity. This would only be possible with significant increase in allocation of financial resources for these services. The data also demonstrate the role of international collaboration and partnerships in mak-ing a concerted effort to improve the neurological care.At the country level, the data summarized in the Neurology Atlas may be used for building up national programmes and development of strategies to improve control of neurological disorders, as well as their implementation at country level. In addition, the Neurology Atlas provides the opportunity for comparative analysis of available resources for neurological disorders across geographical regions and countries.The material presented is a first snapshot of the actual glo-bal situation, and we are aware of gaps in information and possible inaccuracies. We are planning to continue our work in this direction to provide more complete, accurate and comparable information in the coming years. Very little information exists regarding the coun-try resources available to cope with the known burden of neurological disorders, which is large by all accounts. To fill this knowledge gap, some important information was col-lected by the headquarters of the World Health Organiza-tion (WHO) working in close collaboration with its regional offices and the World Federation of Neurology (WFN). This work was undertaken under WHO’s Project Atlas, ongoing since 2000. The Atlas of Country Resources for Neurologi-cal Disorders (the Neurology Atlas) describes the global and regional analyses of the country resources for neurological disorders from 106 Member States of WHO, one Associate Member (Puerto Rico), one Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong, China) and one territory (West Bank and Gaza Strip), covering 90.1% of the world population. The infor-mation is primarily gathered from key experts in the area of neurology in each country identified by WFN as their official delegates and, in some cases, by WHO regional offices. It is one of the most comprehensive compilations of neurological resources ever attempted. Limitations are to be kept in mind, however, when interpreting the data and their analyses. The key persons were among the most knowledgeable persons in their countries, but the possibility remains of the data being incomplete and in certain areas even inaccurate. The draft report was reviewed by leading experts in the field of neurol-ogy and regional advisers of the six WHO regions, and their comments were incorporated. The available literature regard-ing some of the themes was also reviewed, and the evidence is summarized.The analyses of the reported frequency of neurological dis-orders showed that epilepsy, cerebrovascular diseases and headache are among the most common neurological condi-tions encountered in both specialist and primary care settings globally, as well as in all WHO regions. The other neurological disorders reported frequently include Parkinson’s disease, neu-roinfections, neuropathies and neurological problems attrib-utable to vertebral disorders. Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias were also among the most frequent neurological conditions encountered by neurologists in high-income coun-tries. The programmes dealing with prevention, health care, training of personnel and research in the countries need to be based on locally prevalent disorders.An important resource is the availability of hospital beds for neurological disorders. Designated neurological beds, though not essential, are an important indicator of the level of organization of neurological services in a country. The median number of neurological beds available in the respond-ing countries is 0.36 per 10 000 population. Two thirds of the responding countries have access to less than one neurologi-cal bed per 10 000 population. In terms of population cov-ered, only 8.8% have access to more than one neurological bed per 10 000 population. Neurological beds are particularly deficient in the African and South-East Asia Regions. The median number of neurological beds per 10 000 population in low-income countries (0.03) is much lower than in high-income countries (0.73). Separate neurological hospitals with a large number of beds may not be desirable, but a neurologi-cal inpatient facility as a part of general hospital is, however, needed to provide comprehensive neurological management.