Objective: To describe actual and preferred place of death of Italian cancer patients and to analyse the preferences met regarding the place of death.Design: Mortality follow back survey of 2000 cancer deaths, identified with a two stage probability sample representative of the whole country. Information on patients’ experience was gathered from the non-professional caregiver with an interview. A section of the interview covered information on the actual and preferred place of death of the patients.Setting: 30 Italian local health districts randomly selected after stratification in four geographical areas.Participants: 1900 of 2000 (95.0%) caregivers of cancer deaths identified.Main outcome measures: Prevalence of actual and preferred places of death.Results: Valid interviews were obtained for 66.9% (n = 1271) of the caregivers. Place of death was home for 57.9% of Italian cancer patients, hospital for 34.6%, hospice …