A large family of mainly Southern Hemisphere conifers, with 17-18 genera and about 170-200 species of evergreen trees and shrubs. The main centres of diversity are in Australasia, particularly New Caledonia, Tasmania and New Zealand, and to a slightly lesser extent, Malesia and South America, in the latter, primarily in the Andes mountains. Several genera extend north of the equator into Indo-China and/or the Philippines, with Podocarpus additionally reaching as far north as southern Japan and southern China in Asia and Mexico in the Americas, and Nageia into southern China and India. Two genera also occcur in sub-Saharan Africa, the widespread Podocarpus and the endemic Afrocarpus.

One species, Parasitaxus ustus, is unique as the only known parasitic conifer. It occurs on New Caledonia, where it is parasitic on another member of the Podocarpaceae, Falcatifolium taxoides.

The genus Phyllocladus, here treated in its own family Phyllocladaceae, is included within the Podocarpaceae by many authors.

Links to other Pinales