Summary: Alzheimer's by the Numbers

Two numbers on a page: 7.2 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease. 11.5 million providing their unpaid care. Behind every digit is a kitchen table.

The United States crossed a threshold this year: more than seven million people sixty-five and older have Alzheimer’s. One in nine Americans over sixty-five. One in three over eighty-five. Without medical breakthroughs, projections show 13.8 million by 2060. Deaths from the disease have increased 145% since 2000, not because Alzheimer’s has become more deadly but because more people are living long enough to develop it.

The disease follows the fault lines of American inequality. Almost two-thirds of those with Alzheimer’s are women. Black Americans are roughly twice as likely to develop it as white Americans; Hispanic Americans approximately 1.5 times. These are not genetic differences. They reflect lifetimes of unequal exposure to cardiovascular risk factors, chronic stress from discrimination, environmental toxins, and unequal access to healthcare. The Lancet Commission identified fourteen modifiable risk factors that may account for up to 45% of dementia cases worldwide, most of them reflecting structural conditions rather than individual choices. Perhaps most troubling: up to three-quarters of people with Alzheimer’s symptoms remain undiagnosed, with the gap widest in communities of color and rural areas.

The care economy is staggering. In 2024, 11.5 million unpaid caregivers provided 19 billion hours of care valued at more than $413 billion. Sixty percent are employed; most have modified their work to accommodate caregiving. The professional care workforce faces a projected shortfall of one million direct care workers by 2031.

Alzheimer’s is the most expensive disease in America. Total costs are projected at $384 billion in 2025. Families bear 70% of the lifetime cost of care, averaging $405,262 per person. The new treatments add another layer: lecanemab costs roughly $26,500 per year for the drug alone, with first-year total costs exceeding $40,000. The treatments exist; the infrastructure to deliver them equitably does not.

These statistics are not an abstraction. They are context for understanding where you and your family sit. Many risk factors are modifiable. Early detection matters more now that early-stage treatments exist. Planning matters because the costs are predictable even when the disease is not.