An estimated 7.4 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2026 figures. That works out to about 1 in 9 people over 65, or roughly 11% of that age group.
How Risk Increases With Age
Alzheimer’s is not an inevitable part of aging, but age is the single biggest risk factor. The numbers climb steeply with each decade of life. Among adults 65 to 74, about 1.7% have a dementia diagnosis. That jumps to 5.7% for those 75 to 84, and reaches 13.1% for people 85 and older, based on CDC survey data from 2022.
Those figures likely undercount the true number. Many people with Alzheimer’s, particularly in the early stages, have not yet been diagnosed. Memory changes can be dismissed as normal aging for years before a formal evaluation happens, which means millions of cases go unrecognized at any given time.
Racial and Ethnic Disparities
Alzheimer’s does not affect all communities equally. Black Americans are roughly twice as likely as white Americans to develop the disease, and Hispanic Americans are about 1.5 times as likely. A long-running study in New York City showed especially stark differences: among people 85 and older, the annual rate of new Alzheimer’s cases was 4.2% for white participants, compared to 11.4% for Black participants and 8.8% for Caribbean Hispanic participants.
The reasons behind these gaps are complex and mostly rooted in systemic inequities rather than genetics alone. One important study tracked participants over 12 years and found that Black participants were 44% more likely to develop dementia than white participants. But after researchers accounted for differences in income, education, chronic health conditions, and lifestyle factors, that gap nearly disappeared. In other words, the higher rates in Black and Hispanic communities largely reflect unequal access to healthcare, higher rates of conditions like diabetes and hypertension, and other social and economic disadvantages that accumulate over a lifetime.
Women Are Disproportionately Affected
Nearly two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women. Part of this is straightforward: women live longer on average, and longer life means more years spent in the age range where Alzheimer’s risk is highest. But researchers continue to investigate whether hormonal changes after menopause, genetic factors, or other biological differences also play a role.
Where Alzheimer’s Ranks as a Cause of Death
Alzheimer’s is the 7th leading cause of death among all U.S. adults and the 6th leading cause among those 65 and older. The true toll is almost certainly higher than official records suggest. Alzheimer’s and other dementias are frequently left off death certificates, even when the disease was the primary driver of decline. People with advanced Alzheimer’s often die from complications like pneumonia or infections that are listed as the cause of death instead.
The Cost of Care
The total economic burden of Alzheimer’s and related dementias in the U.S. reached $781 billion in 2025, a figure that includes medical expenses, long-term care, and the massive contribution of unpaid family caregivers. Those caregivers, mostly spouses and adult children, provide an estimated 6.8 billion hours of unpaid care each year, valued at $233 billion. That averages out to the equivalent of roughly 3.4 million full-time jobs’ worth of labor, absorbed almost entirely by families.
The financial impact extends well beyond medical bills. Family caregivers frequently reduce their own work hours or leave jobs entirely to provide care, losing income and retirement savings in the process. The cost of memory care facilities, which can run $5,000 to $8,000 or more per month, pushes many families into difficult financial decisions within a few years of diagnosis.
Why the Numbers Keep Growing
The number of Americans with Alzheimer’s has been rising for decades and will continue to climb. The primary driver is demographics: the massive baby boomer generation is now moving through the age range where Alzheimer’s risk accelerates most sharply. People are also living longer overall, which means more years of exposure to that risk. Projections estimate the number of Americans 65 and older with Alzheimer’s could reach nearly 12 to 13 million by midcentury if no breakthrough in prevention or treatment changes the trajectory.
New treatments that slow the disease’s progression have reached the market in recent years, but they work only in the early stages and slow decline rather than stop it. The sheer size of the aging population means the total number of people living with Alzheimer’s will keep growing for the foreseeable future, even as research advances.