Facts and Figures

How many people have dementia in the UK?

Dementia affects over 750,000 people in the UK.
Using population figures for 1996 this can be broken down by region:
England 652,000
Scotland 63,700
Wales 41,800
Northern Ireland 17,100

Will the number of people affected increase in the future?

The Alzheimer's Society believe that over the next 25 years there is likely to be a steady rather than a dramatic increase in the number of people with dementia.

Who gets dementia?

Dementia is predominantly a condition that affects the elderly.
One in 20 of people aged 70 to 80 have dementia. This rises to one in five in the 80 plus age group.
While it is comparatively rare, dementia can affect younger people. There are over 18,000 people under the age of 65 with dementia in the UK.

Prevalence rates are:

Age (years) Prevalence
40-65 1 in 1000
65-70 1 in 50
70-80 1 in 20
80+ 1 in 5

What form of dementia is most common?
People with dementia typically have problems with their memory, speech and perception. There are several diseases that cause the symptoms of dementia.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause: 55 per cent of people with dementia have Alzheimer's disease.
20 per cent of those with dementia have a form caused by vascular disease.
15 per cent have dementia with Lewy bodies.
5 per cent have Pick's disease and frontal lobe dementia.
A further 5 per cent have other rarer forms of dementia
What more do we know about people with dementia?

There are at least 14,000 people with dementia in the UK's ethnic minority communities.

Over one-third of people with dementia live alone.
People with Down's syndrome have an increased genetic risk of developing dementia.
How does the position in the UK compare to the rest of the world?

There are nearly 18 million people with dementia in the world.
By 2025 this figure will rise to 34 million.
71 per cent of people with dementia will live in developing countries.

Information from Alzheimers Soc