The burden of asthma differs from country to country and within populations. The factors that influence this variation include asthma prevalence and severity, aspects of healthcare services (such as accessibility, quality and utilisation) and social demographic factors (such as income inequality, cultural and linguistic diversity and indigenous populations). The identification of individuals and populations that are 'harder to reach', 'special' or at greater risk of poor asthma outcomes therefore depends on how the burden of asthma and its management are measured. Meeting the challenge of educating harder-to-reach populations with asthma is the focus of this article. In clinical settings, communication is the mainstay of engaging and building trust to influence behavioural change in individuals; community-based interventions provide valuable opportunities for targeting harder-to-reach populations. However, they require active community consultation and participation and innovative approaches to service delivery, in addition to being theoretically driven and systematically developed.