Facts for the media

Key facts and statistics on dementia and other dementia related topics can be found here. 

What is dementia?

Dementia describes different brain disorders that trigger a loss of brain function. These conditions are all usually progressive and eventually severe.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia, affecting between 50 and 75 per cent of those diagnosed.

Other types of dementia include; vascular dementia affecting up to 20 per cent of those diagnosed, frontotemporal dementia affecting 2 per cent and dementia with Lewy bodies between 10 and 15 per cent.

Symptoms of dementia include memory loss, confusion and problems with speech and understanding. Dementia is a terminal condition.

Who is affected?

There are currently around 900,000 people with dementia in the UK. This is projected to rise to 1.6 million by 2040.

209,600 will develop dementia this year, that’s one every three minutes.


There are over 42,000 people under 65 with dementia in the UK.

More than 25,000 people from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups in the UK are affected.

How much does it cost?

Two thirds of the cost of dementia is paid by people with dementia and their families.

Unpaid carers supporting someone with dementia save the UK economy £13.9 billion a year.

The total cost of care for people with dementia in the UK is £34.7billion. This is set to rise sharply over the next two decades, to £94.1billion by 2040.

The cost of social care for people with dementia is set to nearly treble by 2040, increasing from £15.7billion to £45.4billion.

Dementia is one of the main causes of disability later in life, ahead of cancer, cardiovascular disease and stroke. As a country we spend much less on dementia than on these other conditions.

How does the UK compare to other countries?

There are an estimated 57.4 million people living with dementia around the globe and it is estimated that this number will rise to 152.8m million by 2050.

What about treatments and research?

There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease or any other type of dementia. Dementia research is desperately underfunded.

There are not enough researchers and clinicians joining the fight against dementia. For every 4 cancer researchers, there is only one dementia researcher.

Alzheimer’s Society is the only UK dementia research charity to fund both biomedical research and care research.

Our funded research aims to improve diagnosis, develop new treatments, and improve care and support for people living with dementia. We were a founding funder of the UK Dementia Research Institute and remain a proud funding partner of the Institute.

Where can you go for advice and information?

Call Alzheimer's Society's Dementia Connect support line on 0333 150 3456

Contacting our press team

For further information, please contact the press office via [email protected].

Or for regional enquiries, please email the regional press office.