by Dementia – the UK’s leading cause of death – is an umbrella term for many conditions and affects more than 55 million people worldwide. In England, around 7,000 people are diagnosed every month.
Global healthcare costs are expected to nearly triple by 2050 and reach $2.8 trillion by 2030.
Here we look at the nationwide fight against an insidious disease.
A postcode lottery for diagnosis
Where you live can affect how likely you are to be diagnosed with the disease. It is estimated that in England, 65% of people aged over 65 will have been diagnosed with dementia by June 2024 – in some areas of the country the rate was as low as 46%.
The government has set a target of diagnosing 66.7% of patients, but the latest figures show that 180 local authority areas in England are below this figure. The target was last met nationally in 2019.
Last year, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia found in a report that structural issues could prevent patients from seeking or receiving a diagnosis, including access to a GP, cultural barriers, waiting times for memory tests, lack of post-diagnosis support and inadequate scanners.
London – the youngest region in England – has by far the lowest number of cases relative to its population, with only 0.6% of residents diagnosed with dementia. Most cases have been found in the regions with the oldest populations – the North East, South East and South West.
In 2021, the Alzheimer’s Society UK estimated that there were almost 900,000 people with dementia, with around half of these cases thought to be misdiagnosed or not recognised at all. A total of 66,000 of the people suspected of having dementia lived in Scotland, 44,000 in Wales and 22,000 in Northern Ireland.
It is not a disease that only affects older people
Although almost all people diagnosed are over 65 years of age, by mid-2024 one in 14 known people with dementia in England had early-onset dementia, meaning they were diagnosed with the disease before their 65th birthday.
Men are more likely to be diagnosed with dementia at a young age than women. NHS figures show that in England, 13% more men under 65 were diagnosed with dementia than women, and that there were almost twice as many men under 50 diagnosed in England as women under 50.
In the older age groups, women are more likely to have dementia than men, and after the age of 80, there are twice as many women as men – probably because women have a longer life expectancy. NHS figures also suggest that white people have a lower diagnosis rate than other ethnic groups.
A global problem with rising health costs
Due to the growth and ageing of the world population, the number of dementia cases worldwide is expected to triple by 2050.
A study published in the Lancet in 2022 predicted that the number of people with dementia worldwide would rise from 57 million cases in 2019 to 153 million in 2050 – with the increase in sub-Saharan Africa being driven by population growth and in East Asia mainly by population aging.
As the number of cases rises, so do the costs of healthcare. A study by the Alzheimer’s Society this year found that the cost of the disease in the UK alone, including the economic impact, is likely to more than double from £42.5 billion today to £90.6 billion by 2040.
Globally, costs are expected to double even faster – from $1.3 trillion in 2019 to $2.8 trillion in 2030. While dementia is the leading cause of death in the UK, it is also a pressing global issue that policymakers and health planners around the world must address.
