10 facts about dementia

The word ‘dementia’ is a term used for a group of symptoms which include memory loss, confusion and personality changes, that get worse overtime. It is not a disease itself.

Dementia is caused by diseases that damage the brain and affects how it works. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia and others include vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and frontotemporal dementia.

It’s a similar concept to having a fever, fever is a symptom, but it is caused by underlying diseases, like the flu. Find out more about the different types of dementia on our dementia information pages here.

Most people associate dementia with memory loss, but it affects people in a wide variety of other ways too.

Other common symptoms include:

• Changes in behaviour. Some people can become withdrawn or depressed. Anxiety is also common.
• Difficulty communicating. For example, problems speaking or understanding words, and repeating common words or phrases.
• Confusion and disorientation. Some may have difficulty recognising people or knowing what everyday objects are for.
• Delusions and hallucinations. These can often involve seeing people or animals that are not there.
• Problems with balance and movement. Difficulty or unsteadiness walking or changes in the way a person walks.

These are just a few examples of dementia symptoms. Everyone with dementia will experience symptoms in their own way and every person’s progression is different.

You can find out more about how dementia symptoms can affect someone’s day-to-day life here.

Dementia is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the UK. Dementia now accounts for more than one in ten of all deaths in the UK.

Despite this, almost 40% of UK adults don’t think that dementia is a cause of death.

You can read about how dementia leads to death here.

93 in every 100 people with dementia are aged 65 and over. However, dementia is not a normal part of getting older.

While the likelihood of dementia does rise with age, it is caused by physical diseases, like Alzheimer’s. This means dementia isn’t just a symptom of ‘old age’ or a normal part of getting older. Despite this, 21% of people still believe that dementia is an inevitable part of ageing.

Find out more about risk factors for dementia, like our age, here.

Dementia can also affect younger people. When dementia symptoms develop in people under the age of 65, this is called young onset dementia. There are over 70,000 people living with young onset dementia in the UK.

Some types of young onset dementia are caused by faulty genes, which are inherited directly from a parent who has the disease at a young age too. However these inherited types of dementia are rare and most cases of young onset dementia are caused by a mixture of risk factors.

Find out more about young onset dementia here.

Research suggests that 45% of dementia cases worldwide could be prevented or delayed if we could eliminate 14 modifiable risk factors.

We cannot change our age or genes, which do play a part in our likelihood of developing dementia. But importantly, our health, environment and lifestyles play a part too. This means there are things we can do to look after our brain health and reduce our risk of getting dementia. This includes:

Interestingly, only a third of people think it’s possible to reduce their risk of developing dementia. This compares to 78% of people who know it’s possible to reduce the risk of developing diabetes.

You can complete our Think Brain Health Check-in to find out about steps you can take to reduce your risk of dementia.

Diagnosing dementia, and which type of dementia someone has is important. Yet a third of people living with dementia over 65 in England do not get a diagnosis. The number of people getting a diagnosis per year did rise by over 50,000 last year, however.

Improved public awareness and reduced social stigma around having dementia may be encouraging more people to seek a diagnosis. But there is still work to do, and we need to see an increase in awareness around the importance of seeking an early dementia diagnosis.

Diagnosing dementia early on, when symptoms are milder ensures people can get the right support and treatments and plan for the future. It also means they may be more suitable for certain research studies, like clinical trials to test new treatments, should they wish to take part.

New treatments for Alzheimer’s disease have shown promising results in clinical trials but have only demonstrated an effect in people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. So an early and accurate diagnosis is even more crucial to enable people access to new treatments for dementia.

Alzheimer’s Research UK, alongside Alzheimer’s Society, The National Institute for Health and Care Research and Gates Ventures, are funding the Blood Biomarker Challenge. This will see the development and testing of dementia blood tests in the NHS. These blood tests will lead to cheaper, more accurate and earlier diagnosis. You can find more information about this research project here.

Recent research has shown that the number of people living with dementia is set to double to 1.7 million by 2040. This is 70% more than previously predicted. People are living longer and dementia becomes more common as we get older, so the ageing population is thought to be partly responsible for this rise in dementia cases.

The largest increase in dementia cases since 2008 was seen amongst people who had a lower education level. This suggests that risk factors linked to social deprivation are also playing a role in the increase in dementia cases.

Being from a minority ethnic group in the UK has been shown to affect our brain health too. Black and South Asian people living in the UK are more likely to be diagnosed at a younger age and die earlier from dementia. Dementia rates are over 20% higher among Black adults compared to the UK average.

Increasing awareness around dementia and it’s risk factors in disadvantaged communities and ethnic minority groups is therefore key to help reduce the number of dementia cases. Our Dementia Community Champions project is aiming to do exactly this across the UK.

The cost of dementia to the UK economy is forecast to be £42 billion for 2024 and increase to £90 billion by 2040 (Alzheimer’s Society & Carnell Farrar (2024), The Economic Impact of Dementia – Module 1).

Yet investment in dementia research remains low compared to other major health conditions. In 2019/2020 dementia research received 2.5 times less funding from government than cancer research.

Investing in dementia research will benefit the economy. Every £1 invested in dementia research is expected to generate an average of £2.91 of economic benefits in the UK between 2020 and 2040.

Alzheimer’s Research UK is committed to increasing investment in dementia research every year. We hope to one day achieve a world free from the fear, harm and heartbreak of dementia. But we need government to increase its support of dementia research as well.

You can read more about our policy work here, and reports that encourage the government to take action. Our reports provide evidence that helps build awareness and support pioneering dementia research in the UK and globally. 

It can take up to 3 years to recruit enough volunteers for a dementia treatment trial. Meanwhile, an entire trial in cancer can be completed in just 2.3 years. Only 1% of people who could take part in clinical trials for dementia research do so.

We need volunteers to take part in dementia research studies to shape the future of dementia  diagnosis, prevention and treatment, and to protect our future generations.

Join Dementia Research is an NHS service which helps people with and without dementia, and carers, to take part in vital dementia research studies. If you or someone you know wants to get involved, you can sign up online by visiting the Join Dementia Research website or by calling us on 0300 111 5111.