The cost of Alzheimer’s disease
Last Reviewed: Jul 2, 2025Alzheimer’s disease is more than a health issue; it's a societal challenge that impacts millions of people and their families. Research with familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD) mutations (and the families associated with these mutations) has provided tremendous breakthroughs for the field of Alzheimer’s disease as a whole.
How many are affected by Alzheimer’s disease?
In 2025, an estimated 7.2 million Americans aged 65 and older are living with Alzheimer's dementia. Additionally, approximately 200,000 individuals under age 65 are affected by younger-onset Alzheimer's, bringing the total number of Americans living with Alzheimer's dementia across all ages to about 7.4 million.¹
Globally, more than 55 million people are living with Alzheimer's and other dementias. Alzheimer's disease accounts for an estimated 60% to 80% of these cases, equating to approximately 33 to 44 million individuals worldwide.¹
Alzheimer's disease was the sixth-leading cause of death among individuals aged 65 and older in the United States in 2022, the most recent year for which mortality data is available. Between 2000 and 2022, deaths from Alzheimer's disease more than doubled, increasing by 142%.¹
Specific costs of Alzheimer’s
Cost of Care: Alzheimer's disease is one of the most expensive conditions to manage. In 2024, health and long-term costs for people living with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias are projected to reach $384 billion billion.¹ Costs include health care, long-term care and hospice.
Family Burden: More than 11.9 million Americans provide unpaid care for a family member or friend with dementia, a contribution to the nation valued at nearly $413 billion.¹ The toll on caregivers is immense, both emotionally and financially. Two-thirds of dementia caregivers are women.
2025 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures ⧉
How common is familial Alzheimer's?
While there’s a considerable body of research around Alzheimer’s overall, statistics about the familial Alzheimer’s are harder to come by. Here are some things we know:
Familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD) represents less than 1%² of all Alzheimer’s disease cases, affecting 5.3 out of 100,000 individuals.³
Only 10% of early-onset Alzheimer’s cases are associated with known pathogenic mutations.⁴
Early-onset Alzheimer’s represents less than 10% of Alzheimer’s cases overall.
It has been estimated that around 45,000 individuals are affected globally by FAD.
The cost of familial Alzheimer’s disease
Although FAD represents a small subset of Alzheimer’s disease cases, the burden faced by families impacted by FAD is large.
As of 2022, the Alzheimer’s Association estimated the average total lifetime cost of a person diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at $412,936. Like other Alzheimer’s families, FAD families grapple with the cost of care and medical treatments. But unlike sporadic Alzheimer’s disease, FAD often strikes adults in their 30s, 40s, and 50s–a period of life in which people are often earning income to support their family and saving for their own retirement.
In FAD, families often need to cover the costs of nursing home/adult daycare facilities, childcare facilities, college tuition, mortgages, etc. all at the same time, and with limited financial means due to the loss of income. Families can feel the lasting effects of these expenses decades after a person has passed.
Since FAD occurs in generation after generation within a family, the effects are compounded. In many cases, a person who has spent years caring for a spouse with FAD, must then turn around to care for an affected child.
Grandparents and teen children can be pulled into the time-consuming and intense task of caregiving, often forgoing other possibilities to support their loved one. Because each sibling is at risk, families often see the same thing happen to several brothers or sisters at around the same time.
The emotional and social burden of familial Alzheimer’s disease
The emotional burden of the disease is even higher than the physical and financial costs.
For those facing FAD or the risk of FAD, whether they are patients, caregivers, or at-risk individuals, this disease adds further pressures and complexities as life and the disease evolves, including changes to family dynamics, mental health, quality of life, and future plans (among many more).
FAD families face many struggles, including grappling with genetic risk of the disease and the grief and loss of loved ones to this disease. Other struggles include getting an accurate and timely diagnosis, placement of younger adults in care facilities, depression and anxiety, and the burden of being a young caregiver.
Families often have insufficient time to financially prepare for care expenses and loss of employment associated with the disease, and it may be hard to talk to friends and family about the disease. There is also the possibility of being discrimination against based on genetic information, through there are laws in place to help prevent this. All of these things can take a toll on one’s psychological and mental health well-being.
To face this disease is to be continually tested on mental well-being, resiliency, and hope.
Youngtimers is here to help
Youngtimers was formed to bring together FAD families and experts to provide meaningful resources for those affected by FAD, a place of comfort during grief, a meeting place to share struggles, a reliable source for the latest research findings, a source of knowledge and empowerment to make informed decisions about patient care.
We’re committed to supporting those impacted by FAD with community, education, and advocacy. As a community-led organization, we are not motivated by profit margin or recognition. We are purely motivated by compassion and scientific truth. A truth that we believe will end generations of family despair. Through research, there is hope for a future free of FAD.
Sources
Alzheimer's Association. 2024 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures. Alzheimers Dement. 2024;20(3):e12345. Link
Bateman, Randall J et al. “Autosomal-dominant Alzheimer's disease: a review and proposal for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease.” Alzheimer's research & therapy vol. 3,1 1. 6 Jan. 2011, doi:10.1186/alzrt59 Link
Campion, D et al. “Early-onset autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease: prevalence, genetic heterogeneity, and mutation spectrum.” American journal of human genetics vol. 65,3 (1999): 664-70. doi:10.1086/302553 - Link
Mantyh, William G et al. “Early-onset Alzheimer's disease explained by polygenic risk of late-onset disease?.” Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands) vol. 15,4 e12482. 28 Sep. 2023, doi:10.1002/dad2.12482 Link