Dementia in Australia

This page presents dementia prevalence, as estimated by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW):

• Introduction
• How many people have dementia in Australia?
• 66% of people with dementia live in the community
• Over one million Australians are projected to have dementia by the year 2065
• How does dementia prevalence vary by geographic and socioeconomic areas?
• International comparisons of dementia prevalence (using data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)

It is estimated that in 2024 there were 425,000 Australians living with dementia. However, the exact number of people with dementia is currently not known as there is no single authoritative data source for deriving dementia prevalence in Australia.

Expand the headings below for information on the available data sources and methodologies to estimate dementia prevalence. Refer to the Prevalence data tables for the underlying data presented in this page.

For more information on the challenges involved in estimating dementia prevalence in different population groups, see:

• First Nations Australians with dementia,
• Culturally and linguistically diverse people with dementia,
• Younger onset and childhood dementia,
• Dementia in other priority groups.
  
  

How many people have dementia in Australia?

The AIHW estimates that in 2024 there were around 425,000 people living with dementia in Australia, including nearly 266,000 women and 159,000 men. This is equivalent to 16 people with dementia per 1,000 Australians (19 per 1,000 women and 12 per 1,000 men).

The rate of dementia rises quickly with age – from less than one person with dementia per 1,000 Australians aged under 60, to 71 per 1,000 Australians aged 75–79, and then to 428 per 1,000 Australians aged 90 and over. Interestingly, the rates are similar for men and women in the younger age groups, but quickly diverge with increasing age. For the oldest age group, the rate of dementia among women is 1.4 times the rate for men (479 per 1,000 women and 337 per 1,000 men) (Figure 2.1).

66% of people with dementia live in the community

The AIHW estimate that 266,100 people with dementia were living in the community (as opposed to cared accommodation) in 2022 (101,600 men and 164,500 women). This equates to 66% of all people with dementia living in the community (68% of men and 65% of women with dementia) (Figure 2.2).

As people with dementia age, they are more likely to move into residential aged care homes and so the proportion living in the community decreases with increasing age. The majority of people with younger onset dementia (aged less than 65) were living in the community (94% or 26,900 people). Among the older age groups, just over half of people with dementia lived in the community (51% of people with dementia aged 85–89 or 36,000 people and 53% aged 90 and over, or 48,800 people).

It is often assumed that people with dementia require care at all times. However, with the appropriate help and support, people with dementia can live independently in their own home, often until their dementia has advanced and care needs become greater. 

According to the Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, of the people with dementia who lived in the community in 2022, 84% lived in private dwellings with other people, while 16% lived alone (Table S2.3). Further information on the Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers data source can be found in the Technical notes.

Over one million Australians are projected to have dementia by the year 2065

With Australia’s population expected to continue growing and ageing into the future, the number of people with dementia is also expected to rise. Applying the AIHW method for calculating dementia prevalence to Australian Bureau of Statistics population projections for each year to 2065, the estimated the number of people with dementia in Australia will more than double over this period – from just under 425,000 in 2024 to nearly 1.1 million in 2065 (around 390,000 men and 662,000 women) (Figure 2.3).

This trend is driven by the projected continued growth and ageing of Australia’s population, as dementia is increasingly common in older age. These estimates should be interpreted with caution: demographic projections over long periods carry a large degree of uncertainty and this approach assumes that dementia incidence (that is, no changes in the rate of new dementia cases in future years) and mortality rates for dementia remain the same, which may not be the case. In particular, recent findings suggest that the official estimated resident population for Australia is less accurate as age increases, especially among those aged 100 and over (Wilson and Temple 2020). Refer to Table S2.4 and Table S2.5 for more details on the estimated dementia prevalence by age and sex between 2010 and 2065.

How does dementia prevalence vary by geographic and socioeconomic areas?

Given the lack of suitable data to accurately estimate dementia prevalence at the national level, it isn’t surprising that estimating dementia prevalence at a finer disaggregation is even more difficult. However, the derived age-specific and sex-specific national prevalence rates can be used to illustrate the impact of different age structures and population sizes on how the number of people with dementia varies across Australia. Dementia prevalence has been estimated by applying these rates to state/ territory, remoteness, socioeconomic area, primary health network (PHN) and Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) populations.

A report using nationwide clinical data from 569 general practices found that dementia was similarly present across socioeconomic and remoteness areas in Australia (NPS MedicineWise 2020). These data provide important insights on those people in the community with diagnosed dementia who attend a regular general practice.

Figure 2.5 shows the estimated number of people with dementia by sex and PHN. There are 31 PHNs across Australia which closely align with the state and territory local hospital networks. The PHN with the highest estimated number of people with dementia is Eastern Melbourne (just under 26,200 people), while the lowest is Western Queensland (around 750 people). Due to the way these prevalence estimates are calculated, PHNs with larger, older populations will have a larger number of estimated people with dementia.

Prevalence estimates by statistical area 2 (SA2) are available in supplementary data Table S2.9.

International comparisons of dementia prevalence

International comparisons of dementia prevalence statistics are a useful starting point for learning how other nations with similar population profiles are experiencing dementia. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publishes dementia prevalence rates for OECD countries that provide a useful comparison for Australia as most are considered developed, high-income countries. The 2021 OECD dementia prevalence rates were slightly lower to the estimates presented in this report, as they used a different methodology and data source. The OECD rates were based on the regional prevalence rates published in the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study 2019 and were subject to varying quality of information across regions, so they should only be used for international comparisons.

The OECD estimated that dementia prevalence in Australia was 13 cases per 1,000 population in 2021, slightly less than the OECD average of 15 per 1,000 population and ranking 12th lowest out of 38 countries (Figure 2.6). Mexico had the lowest rate, just over one third of the Australian rate at 4.5 per 1,000 population, whereas Japan’s rate was highest at 32 per 1,000 population (OECD 2023). These are unadjusted prevalence rates, meaning that much of the variation in dementia prevalence across countries is due to differences in population age structures, with ageing OECD nations tending to have higher prevalence rates.