Dementia is now Australia’s leading cause of death: Australian Bureau of Statistics

Dementia is now Australia’s leading cause of death, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed.

Last year, the horror disease, which progressively degrades a person’s memory and cognitive function, took the lives of 17,549 people.

The shock death toll marks a 39 per cent rise over the past decade.

In 2023, dementia killed 16,689 people, while in 2015, it took the lives of 12,641 Australians.

ABS head of mortality statistics Lauren Moran said dementia’s advance aligned with the country’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.

“This is especially true for women who have longer life expectancies. Today’s data shows that 62.4 per cent 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.”

More than two-thirds (68.2 per cent) of dementia deaths were people aged more than 75 years, the ABS said, compared with 66.1 per cent 10 years ago and 63.3 per cent 20 years ago.

Altogether, dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, accounted for 9.4 per cent of deaths.

The ABS also stressed that patterns of mortality were changing with ageing demographics and changes in medical interventions.

“As medical interventions improve, people may live longer with multiple chronic conditions,” the ABS said.

“Around 80 per cent of people aged over 75 years had more than one disease or condition listed on their death certificate as contributing to or causing death.”

In 1994, the population’s median age was 33.4 years. Last year, it was 38.3 years.

After dementia, ischaemic heart disease was the country’s most dangerous health risk, taking the lives of 16,275 people, or 8.7 per cent of deaths, last year.

Chronic lower respiratory diseases, which include emphysema and bronchitis, caused just more than 9000 deaths as the third leading cause of death.

Suicide was the leading cause of premature deaths in the country, the ABS reports.

There were 3307 people who died by suicide in 2024 or 12.2 deaths per 100,000 people.

Men accounted for just more than three-quarters of those deaths.

Drug and alcohol-induced deaths both increased in 2024.

Drug-induced deaths rose to 1947, up from 1766 in 2023, while alcohol-induced deaths rose to 1765 from 1700 over the same period.