Demographics

Most people (70%) in the dementia study cohort lived in Major cities, with 21% in Inner regional areas, 8.0% in Outer regional areas and 0.7% in Remote and very remote areas (Table S1.1). 

The number of people living with dementia in residential aged care in Outer regional and Remote and very remote areas was low (Figure 2.1), likely because most residential aged care services are located in metropolitan areas and people often move to access them (Royal Commission 2020), and the flexible aged care services available in more rural areas are not captured in the linked data (see Box 1.1) (AIHW 2023a).

The percentage of people aged 85 and over living in residential aged care was also lower in Remote and very remote areas (47% compared with 56% in Major cities) (Figure 2.1). This may be due to a shorter life expectancy in rural and remote areas (AIHW 2023b), as well as issues relating to the identification of people living with dementia in the linked data (see Box 1.1).

There were similar numbers of men and women living with dementia in the community outside of Major cities, and up to twice as many women as men living in residential aged care in all remoteness areas.

Figure 2.1: Number and percentage of people in the dementia study cohort, by place of residence, remoteness area, sex and age group, 2019

Figure 2.1 is an interactive bar chart showing the number and percentage of people in the dementia study cohort by remoteness area, age group and sex. Among people living in the community, most lived in Major cities (96,900 people), followed by Inner regional areas (14,300 people), Outer regional areas (5,800 people) and Remote and very remote areas (760 people). Among people living in residential aged care, most lived in Major cities (126,100 people), followed by Inner regional areas (19,000 people), Outer regional areas (6,900 people) and Remote and very remote areas (330 people). Women had an older age profile than men in all remoteness areas.

Notes

1. The dementia study cohort refers to 158,730 people aged 30 and over who were living in Australia in 2019 and had a dementia record in the NIHSI. Western Australia and the Northern Territory were excluded from all analyses because their hospital data were not available for construction of the dementia cohort.

2. The geographies in this report are based on where a person lived, not where they received services. Remoteness areas are based on the 2016 Remoteness Area Structure within the ASGS.

3. A small number of SA2s with no SEIFA IRSD ranking were excluded from age group analysis because they could not be assigned to a Remoteness Area/IRSD group. As a result, totals for the cohort, remoteness and socioeconomic areas do not sum to the totals for States/territories and SA4 regions.

Data tables: Number and percentage of people in the dementia study cohort

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