Summary

Progress status of activities in 2025

As of December 2025, two-thirds (28 out of 42) of the activities outlined in this plan are in progress or completed. The progress status of each activity and alignment to the National Dementia Action Plan are outlined in Figure 1.1.

For background on the purpose and goals of this plan, see Why do we need the National Dementia Data Improvement Plan? and How are we tracking towards the goals of this plan?.

Figure 1.1: Status of National Dementia Data Improvement Plan activities in December 2025, and alignment to National Dementia Action Plan

Tables showing the number of activities under each data gap and which activities are not started, in progress or complete.

Tables showing the number of activities under each data gap and which activities are not started, in progress or complete.

Notes

  1. Activities marked as complete are considered complete within the scope of the 10-year plan. This may include completion of initial data collection or scoping activities, while related work – such as survey iterations or implementation of ideas from scoping – may still be ongoing.
  2. NDAP is the National Dementia Action Plan 2024–2034.
  3. Hover over the coloured dots to see activity or NDAP action details.

Why do we need the National Dementia Data Improvement Plan?

Dementia is a significant and growing health and aged care issue, with over 1 million Australians projected to be living with dementia by 2065 (AIHW 2025). High quality and comprehensive dementia data are needed to monitor dementia in Australia and inform evidence-based policy, service provision and planning. 

The aim of this National Dementia Data Improvement Plan 2023–2034 (the ‘plan’) is to deliver better data to improve outcomes for people in Australia with dementia, their carers and families, by improving national dementia data for population-level monitoring, research, and reporting. The plan outlines activities to improve national dementia data over 10 years to monitor dementia and provide an evidence base for effective policy development, service provision and planning.

Specific goals of the plan are that by 2034, Australia will have:

  • Goal 1: robust dementia prevalence and incidence data
  • Goal 2: national dementia data available and reported regularly in key monitoring areas
  • Goal 3: improved dementia data in priority population groups 
  • Goal 4: harmonised dementia data collected across sources
  • Goal 5: dementia data within wider national data linkages.

Achieving one or more of the above goals would greatly improve data available to effectively deliver and evaluate policies and services aimed at improving the lives of people with dementia and their carers in Australia. 

The data improvement activities outlined in the plan involve changes to prioritisation, collection, interoperability and reporting of national dementia data by governments, researchers, service providers and other national data custodians. The plan will also guide activities to be undertaken by the AIHW National Centre for Monitoring Dementia, and activities required to assess the performance of the National Dementia Action Plan 2024–2034 (NDAP).

The plan is designed to be flexible and evolve with changes in dementia data sources, progression of the NDAP, new analysis methods, consultations, and improvements in key sector data and Australia’s broader data infrastructure. 

How are we tracking towards the goals of this plan?

There are 3 short-term goals of this plan which build towards the 5 overarching goals: developing new data linkages, new data analysis methods and baseline data from new data collections. These short-term goals were achieved by the 2-year review of the plan (in December 2025), with key achievements across each goal outlined below.

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