WHO’s Mental Health Atlas series has already established itself as the single most comprehensive and most widely used source of global information on mental health situation. This new edition of Mental Health Atlas, carried out in 2014, assumes new importance as a repository of mental health information in WHO Member States because it is providing much of the baseline data against which progress towards the objectives and targets of the Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020 is to be measured. Atlas is the mechanism through which indicators in relation to agreed global targets, as well as a set of other core mental health indicators, are being collected. In collecting this information, the mental health Atlas 2014 questionnaire covers critical areas of mental health system development, including governance and financing, human resources, service availability and delivery, promotion and prevention, and surveillance. Subsequent to this baseline data collection in 2014, a Mental Health Atlas survey will be sent to country focal points periodically, so that progress towards meeting the targets of the Action Plan can be measured over time.