As per the recent study from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), dementia was found to be the leading cause of death in the island-continent in 2024. Becoming Australia’s top killer disease for the first time, Alzheimer‘s disease took over ischaemic heart disease as the main fatality factor last year.
The ASB data reported 1,87,268 deaths in Australia, out of which 17,549 were caused by dementia. As compared to 2006, the tally has risen by more than 160 per cent from 6,550 in 2006. In fact, from those deceased, 85.2 per cent in 2024 occurred in the age bracket of 75 years, which also increased 63.3 per cent from 2004. This also amounted to 16,620 deaths from dementia among those above and in the 75 age group.
Apart from the age-related deaths in Australia, women accounted for nearly 62.4 per cent of dementia-related deaths, mainly due to life expectancy factors. In fact, dementia has been the leading cause of death for Australian women since 2016. Overall, dementia mortality increased by 39 per cent over the last decade.
Future predictions
As dementia dominated nearly 9.5 per cent of the 2024 deaths, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s September 2025 report estimated that dementia cases will only increase. They are set to reach the 1 million mark from 425,000 in 2024 to 2065.
As per ABS officials, those living with dementia were also likely to be suffering from coronary heart disease, hypertension and even some cancers. “Approximately 80 per cent of people who died from dementia had other diseases and conditions listed on their death certificate,” the survey found.
What followed?
After 17,549 deaths from dementia, Ischaemic heart disease was the second-highest killer in Australia, taking over 16,000 lives. It was also discovered that chronic lower respiratory diseases caused 9,229 deaths, and Cerebrovascular diseases ranked fourth-highest on the list at 9147 deaths.
Furthermore, ABS recorded mental and behavioural disorders to be the fifth-biggest life-taker standing close to 9000 deaths. They decided the leading cause according to ‘remoteness’. Which means accessibility to healthcare is impacted by socio-economic status and more. “Dementia is the leading cause in major cities and inner regional [areas], but in those outer regional, remote and very remote areas, it’s actually the ischaemic heart diseases,” ABS revealed.