How many First Nations people have dementia?
This page presents the latest data showing the estimated number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people living with dementia, including:
While there are no national-level estimates of the number of First Nations people with dementia, smaller studies have been conducted that provide indications of:
- The prevalence of dementia in the Northern Territory, the Kimberley region of Western Australia and the Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Area of Far North Queensland.
- Urban and regional differences in dementia among community-dwelling older Aboriginal Australians in New South Wales
There are no national estimates of dementia prevalence among First Nations Australians.
- There are ongoing efforts to improve the accuracy of dementia prevalence estimates in Australia. As findings from these initiatives become available, we may be able to estimate the prevalence of dementia among First Nations Australians in the coming years. See 3: Dementia prevalence and incidence of the National Dementia Data Improvement Plan 2023–2034 for information on current developments and future activities aimed at improving dementia prevalence data (AIHW 2024).
- Key steps to improve estimates of dementia prevalence among First Nations Australians are underway, including:
- continued efforts to improve the quality of First Nations identifiers across Australia (AIHW 2020; Griffiths et al. 2019), which can be used to estimate the proportion of First Nations with dementia and their prevalence estimates, and
- improved uptake of culturally sensitive and validated assessment tools to diagnose cognitive decline and dementia in First Nations Australians, such as the Kimberley Indigenous Cognitive Assessment tool (available from Aboriginal Ageing Well Research).
Risk factors for dementia
Preventing dementia in First Nations people requires an understanding of the underlying medical and social risk factors for developing dementia.
Some important risk factors that present at higher levels among First Nations people include:
- head injury
- stroke
- diabetes
- high blood pressure
- renal disease
- cardiovascular disease
- obesity
- hearing loss
- childhood stress and trauma
- living in lower socioeconomic areas (Flicker and Holdsworth 2014; Goldberg et al. 2018; Radford et al. 2019).
A key national research priority is to develop and evaluate culturally responsive programs, interventions and policies to reduce dementia risk factors across the life course and prevent or delay the onset of cognitive decline and dementia (including by targeting social determinants of health) (NHMRC 2020).
Prevalence and incidence of dementia
Although there are no national-level estimates of the number of First Nations people with dementia, studies examining different communities of First Nations people have consistently found that dementia prevalence rates are about 3–5 times as high as rates for Australia overall.
High dementia prevalence (that is, all dementia cases in a given period) and incidence (that is, new dementia cases in a given period) have been documented for very different groups of First Nations people:
- Rates of dementia for First Nations people in remote and rural communities are among the highest in the world. Based on a sample of 363 First Nations people aged 45 and over living in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia, dementia prevalence was 12.4% (Smith et al. 2008). When followed up 7 years later for those aged 60 and over (excluding those who had died or were unavailable for the study), dementia incidence was 21 per 1,000 person years (LoGiudice et al. 2016).
- Across the Northern Territory, the age-adjusted prevalence of dementia diagnoses recorded in electronic health data systems for First Nations people aged 45 and over was 6.5%, compared with 2.6% among the non-Indigenous Australians (Li et al. 2014).
- First Nations people also had a younger age of onset of dementia, with a median age of 72 years compared with a median age of 79 years among non-Indigenous Australians. The age-adjusted incidence rate of dementia among First Nations people aged 45 and over was about 2.5 times as high as the rate among non-Indigenous Australians (27 and 11 per 1,000 person years, respectively) (Li et al. 2014).
- Among urban and regional dwelling First Nations people aged 60 and over, the prevalence of dementia was about 3 times as high as the overall Australian prevalence for the same age group (21% and 6.8%, respectively), with Alzheimer’s disease being the most common type of dementia present. Dementia prevalence rates among urban and regional dwelling First Nations people aged 60 and over were slightly lower (21%) compared to rates among First Nations people living in remote areas (23.8%) (Radford et al. 2019, Radford et al. 2015).
- A study by Russell et al. (2020), estimated a dementia prevalence of 14.2% among Torres Strait Islanders aged between 45 and 93 years.
- The ARC Centre for Excellence in Population Ageing Research projected that by 2051, the relative growth in the number of First Nations people aged 50 years and over with dementia will be 4.5 to 5.5 times the 2016 estimated prevalence which ranged from 2,300 to 12,900 First Nations people (Temple et al. 2022). The study attributes this to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population ageing, where age is a known risk factor for dementia.
Evidence of high prevalence, younger onset and high incidence of dementia, suggests that without interventions to help moderate the impact of dementia, its burden among First Nations people will continue to grow in the coming years.
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2020) Dementia data gaps and opportunities, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 17 August 2022.
AIHW (2024) National Dementia Data Improvement Plan 2023-2024, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 28 April 2025.
Flicker L and Holdsworth K (2014) Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people and dementia: a review of the research, Alzheimer’s Australia, accessed 17 August 2022.
Goldberg LR, Cox T, Hoang H and Baldock D (2018) Addressing dementia with Indigenous peoples: a contributing initiative from the Circular Head Aboriginal community, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 42(5):424–426, doi:10.1111/1753-6405.12798.
Griffiths K, Coleman C, Al-Yaman F, Cunningham J, Garvey G, Whop L, Pulver LJ, Ring I and Madden R (2019) The identification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in official statistics and other data: critical issues of international significance, Statistical Journal of the IAOS, 35(1):91–106, doi:10.3233/SJI-180491.
Li SQ, Guthridge SL, Aratchige PE, Lower MP, Wang Z, Zhao Y and Krause V (2014) Dementia prevalence and incidence among the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations of the Northern Territory, Medical Journal of Australia, 200(8):465–469, doi:10.5694/mja13.11052.
LoGiudice D, Smith K, Fenner S, Hyde Z, Atkinson D, Skeaf L, Malay R and Flicker L (2016) Incidence and predictors of cognitive impairment and dementia in Aboriginal Australians: a follow-up study of 5 years, Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 12(3):252–261, doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2015.01.009.
NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council) (2020) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander roadmap for dementia research and translation, NHMRC, Australian Government, accessed 17 August 2022.
Radford K, Mack HA, Draper B, Chalkley S, Daylight G, Cumming R, Bennett H, Delbaere K, Broe GA (2015) Prevalence of dementia in urban and regional Aboriginal Australians, Alzheimers Dement, 11(3):271-9, doi: 10.1016/j.jalz.2014.03.007
Radford K, Delbaere K, Draper B, Mack HA, Daylight G, Cumming R, Chalkley S, Minogue C and Broe GA (2017) Childhood stress and adversity is associated with late-life dementia in Aboriginal Australians, The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 25(10):1097–1106, doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2017.05.008.
Radford K, Lavrencic LM, Delbaere K, Draper B, Cumming R, Daylight G, Mack HA, Chalkey S, Bennett H, Garvey G, Hill TY, Lasschuit D and Broe GA (2019) Factors associated with the high prevalence of dementia in older Aboriginal Australians, Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 70(s1):S75–S85, doi:10.3233/JAD-180573.
Russell SG, Quigley R, Thompson F, Sagigi B, LoGiudice D, Smith K, Pachana N, Miller G and Strivens E (2020) Prevalence of dementia in the Torres Strait, Australasian Journal on Ageing 40(2):e125–e132, doi:10.1111/ajag.12878.
Smith K, Flicker L, Lautenschlager NT, Almeida OP, Atkinson D, Dwyer A and LoGiudice D (2008) High prevalence of dementia and cognitive impairment in Indigenous Australians, Neurology, 71(19):1470–1473, doi:10.1212/01.wnl.0000320508.11013.4f.
Temple J, Wilson T, Radford K, LoGiudice D, Utomo A, Anstey KJ and Eades S (2022) Demographic drivers of the growth of the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living with dementia, 2016–2051, Australasian Journal on Ageing, 41(4):e320–e327, doi:10.1111/ajag.13116.