A report released today (7th January 2022) has described how the total number of people living with dementia around the world could be set to almost triple by the year 2050.
Researchers looked at information from the large Global Burden of Disease study including data from almost 200 countries. They calculated that the number of people globally living with dementia would rise from 57 million in 2019 to 152 million people in 2050, driven largely by a growing, and an ageing, global population.
The researchers highlight the importance of prioritising public health planning to address modifiable risk factors which can help to reduce the numbers of people developing dementia.
The report also shows that these case numbers won’t fall evenly across all parts of the world, with the sharpest increases being seen in low and middle income countries.
We've written previously about these global projections and the important distinction between the total number of people living with dementia and the rates at which new cases of dementia are developed.
The report Estimation of the global prevalence of dementia in 2019 and forecasted prevalence in 2050: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 is available open access in The Lancet Public Health.