Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, was responsible for more than 17,500 deaths last year, highlighting a significant public health concern.

Meanwhile, ischemic heart diseases have reached their lowest incidence rate in the available historical data, marking a notable shift in health trends.

“Over the past decade, we’ve seen a 39% increase in deaths attributed to dementia,” stated Lauren Moran, the ABS Head of Mortality Statistics.

This trend reflects the demographic reality of Australia’s ageing population, influencing the leading causes of death in 2024.

More than two-thirds of these deaths occurred in individuals over the age of 75, a rise from 66.1% ten years ago and 63.3% two decades ago.

“As people live longer, they are more likely to reach an age where the risk of developing dementia significantly increases,” Moran explained.

“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,” Moran said.

The gap between dementia and ischemic heart disease deaths has been narrowing for a while, with dementia accounting for 9.1 per cent of total deaths, while heart disease accounted for 9.3 per cent in 2023.

In 2024, dementia accounted for 9.4 per cent of total deaths, and ischaemic heart diseases accounted for 8.7 per cent.