Dementia statistics

No life blighted by Alzheimer's will ever be just a statistic. But the facts and figures about the impact of this disease and other dementias, as well as the current costs of care and research, make for sobering reading. Where possible, the original source for the following statistics has also been included.

Overview

There are 700,000 people living with dementia in the UK today, a number forecast to double within a generation.

25 million people, or 42% of the UK population, are affected by dementia through knowing a close friend or family member with the condition.

Only £11 is spent on UK research into Alzheimer's for every person affected by the disease, compared with £289 for cancer patients.

National impact

163,000 new cases of dementia occur in England and Wales each year - one every 3.2 minutes.

Source: Matthews F et al. (2005) The Incidence of Dementia in England and Wales: Findings from the Five Identical Sites of the MRC CFA Study. PLoS Medicine, Vol 2, Issue 8, e193, 1-11

Each year 39,400 more people are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in England and Wales. That equates to one new case every 14 minutes.*

Source: Copeland JRM et al. (1999) Undifferentiated dementia, Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia: age- and gender-related incidence in Liverpool. The MRC-ALPHA Study. British Journal of Psychiatry 173, 433-438.

* This number is different from the one above because it relates solely to Alzheimer's which accounts for around two-thirds of dementia cases, and because it only includes diagnosed patients. Many people with dementia are never formally diagnosed.

Regional statistics

We have statistics showing the prevalence of dementia in a number of regions and UK cities available on request.

Global impact

Worldwide, there is a new case of dementia every seven seconds.

More than 24.3 million people are currently estimated to have dementia, and 4.6 million new cases are diagnosed each year.

The idea that illnesses like Alzheimer's are a disease of rich developed nations is a myth: 60 percent of people with dementia live in developing countries. And while the rate of dementia is expected to double between 2001 and 2040 in developed nations, it is forecast to increase by more than 300 percent in India and China.

Source: Ferri et al (2005) Global prevalence of dementia: a Delphi consensus study. The Lancet 366, 2112-2117.

Dementia research funding in the US and UK in 2007

Government funding in £mn (GBP)

Alzheimer's Organisation funding in £mn (GBP)

Government funding per capita (GBP)

Total funding per capita (GBP)

Government funding as % of GDP

Total funding as % of GDP

USA

338.43

9.99

1.12

1.15

0.0051

0.0053

6.53 (incl. Wellcome)

0.42

0.53

0.0018

0.0026

Sources: Alzheimer’s Research Trust; Alzheimer’s Australia

The cost to society - now and in the future

The number of people with cognitive impairment, which is most commonly caused by dementia, is expected to increase by 66 percent between 1998 and 2031 to 765,000 individuals.

According to the Dementia UK report from King's College London and the London School of Economics, dementia currently costs the UK over £17billion per year.

Dementia costs in the UK will reach almost £35 billion within 20 years according to the King's Fund's 2008 report 'Paying the Price'.

Unless treatments are found the number of people with cognitive impairment who will be placed in institutions is expected to rise by more than 63 percent from 224,000 in 1998 to 365,000 in 2031.

If scientists could develop a treatment that would reduce severe cognitive impairment in older people by just 1% per year, this would cancel out all estimated increases in the long-term care costs due to our ageing population.

Source: Cognitive impairment in older people: its implications for future demand for services and costs. Adelina Comas-Herrera, Raphael Wittenberg, Linda Pickard, Martin Knapp and MRC-CFAS. PSSRU Discussion Paper

Cognitive Impairment in Older People: future demand for long-term care services and the associated costs (2007) by Adelina Comas-Herrera, Raphael Wittenberg, Linda Pickard and Martin Knapp 1728.

UK dementia research

For each Alzheimer's patient, only £11 is spent on UK research compared to £289 for cancer patients.

Disease	Annual cost of care £m	Annual spend by government on research £m	Annual spend by charities on research £m	Total annual UK spend on research £m
Alzheimer's	11,000	3.7	1.8	5.5
Stroke	3,200	5.5	3.6	9.1
Heart disease	4,050	15.5	42.9	58.4
Cancer	1,060	33	155.4	188.4

Source: Lowin et al (April 2001), Alzheimer's disease in the UK: comparative evidence on cost of illness and volume of health services research funding. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 16, 1143-1148.

Just two percent of government funding through the Medical Research Council was spent on dementia research in 2003/4, despite the fact that the number of people with dementia in the UK is forecast to double within a generation. Of the £32 million spent on mental health research by the MRC in 2003/04, just £7.2m funded studies looking at dementia research.

Source: MRC, March 2006.

Over the past five years government dementia research has halved. In 2000/01 it was £12.9 million compared to £6.8 million in 2004/05. It has also reduced as a proportion of total NHS expenditure from 0.03% to 0.01%.

Source: Ivan Lewis MP response on 21 March 2007 to a written question placed by Dr Ian Gibson MP.