Dementia is now Australia’s leading cause of death, new figures suggest.
The latest data on causes of death from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has reinforced that dementia is the leading cause of death in Australia.
The ABS data showed that dementia was responsible for the most deaths in Australia in 2024, with the number of deaths caused by the disease rising 39% over the past decade.
Lauren Moran, ABS head of mortality statistics, said the figures aligned with Australia’s ageing population.
“People are now more likely to live to an age where they have a higher risk of developing dementia,” Ms Moran said.
More than two-thirds (68.2%) of deaths were people aged over 75 years, compared to 66.1% some 10 years ago, and 63.3% 20 years ago.
She said an increased risk of dying from dementia was especially true for women who have longer life expectancies.
The 2024 data showed that 62.4% of people who died from dementia were women.
“We’ve also seen that dementia has been the leading cause of death for women since 2016,” Ms Moran added.
Dementia Australia chief executive Professor Tanya Buchanan said this data reinforced the critical need to invest in public health approaches to brain health and dementia risk reduction, while providing more targeted support for people impacted by dementia.
“There are currently an estimated 433,300 Australians living with dementia and without significant intervention, this number is expected to increase to more than one million by 2065,” Professor Buchanan said
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“We need to act on dementia now. At a community level, we need to increase awareness of dementia and brain health, reducing the stigma experienced by so many impacted by dementia.”
Professor Buchanan said quality dementia care, with palliative care tailored to the needs of people living with dementia, their families, and carers at the end of their life, was needed across health, aged, disability and community care sectors.
“Although there are things we cannot change, like getting older or genetics, we now know that up to 45% of dementia cases globally could be prevented or delayed by addressing modifiable risk factors,” she said.
“Dementia Australia is continuing to advocate to government for investment in a national brain health and risk reduction campaign.”
Previous ABS data had shown the gap between dementia and ischaemic heart disease narrowing over time. Dementia accounted for 9.1% of total deaths, while heart disease accounted for 9.3% in 2023.
In 2024, ABS data showed dementia accounted for 9.4% of total deaths, and ischaemic heart diseases 8.7%
The findings follow on from Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data released in September, based on 2023 data, which suggested dementia had taken over as Australia’s leading cause of death.
Ms Moran added that coronary heart disease remained the leading cause of death for men, causing 10,153 deaths in 2024.
“It was also the leading cause of death for people living in outer regional, remote, and very remote Australia,” she said.
Coronary heart disease was the second leading cause of premature death, after suicide.
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Chronic lower respiratory diseases (which include emphysema and bronchitis) caused more than 9,000 deaths, becoming the third leading cause of death in 2024.
“Overall deaths caused by respiratory diseases (excluding COVID-19) were at a record low during the first few years of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we’re now seeing a return to numbers recorded before the pandemic. This includes the flu, which caused 827 deaths in 2024,” Ms Moran said.
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