Jennifer Mendoza
Research expert covering health, pharma and medtech
Dementia and Alzheimer's disease in Canada - Statistics & Facts
In 2020, it was estimated that around 9.7 percent of women and 6.9 percent of men in Canada aged 65 years and older were living with dementia. By the year 2050, these figures are expected to increase to around 15.3 percent for women and 10.6 percent for men. As life expectancy and the share of the elderly population in a country increase so does the prevalence of dementia, with this syndrome creating a substantial burden on families, caregivers, and health systems. Dementia does not refer to a specific disease but is a term used to describe a set of symptoms including a decline in memory, planning, judgment, and language that interfere with everyday activities. Some of the most common types of dementia are Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Lewy body disease, and fronto-temporal dementia. However, Alzheimer’s disease is by far the most common form of dementia, accounting for an estimated 60 to 80 percent of cases. Age is the strongest risk factor for dementia, but other risk factors include a family history of dementia, high blood pressure, smoking tobacco, excessive alcohol use, a lack of physical exercise, obesity, and diabetes.
