Demographic Pulse: Life without memories – the challenge of dementia

According to estimates by Alzheimer’s Disease International, around 36 million people worldwide suffer from dementia. Most of them live in developing and emerging countries. By the middle of the century their number is expected to more than triple. In Asia alone nearly 61 million people will be affected by dementia by 2050; and in China more people will suffer from dementia than in all industrialized countries put together. In Europe the number of cases will nearly double from around 10 million today to just under 19 million. Some 15 million of those affected will be living in the European Union. In Germany the number of cases is expected to rise from around 1.3 million today to 2.6 million.