An estimated 7.2 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s dementia in 2025, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. That number is projected to nearly double by 2050, reaching close to 13 million as the population ages.
Who Is Most Affected by Age
Alzheimer’s is overwhelmingly a disease of older age, and the risk climbs steeply with each decade. Seventy-four percent of Americans with Alzheimer’s are 75 or older. About 2.5 million are 85 or older, making up a full third of all cases despite that age group being a small fraction of the overall population. The remaining 26% are between 65 and 74.
A smaller number of people develop what’s called younger-onset Alzheimer’s before age 65. These cases are harder to count precisely because they’re often misdiagnosed or diagnosed late, but they add to the total beyond the 7.2 million figure for older adults.
Racial and Ethnic Disparities
The disease does not affect all communities equally. Among Americans 65 and older, Black individuals have the highest prevalence at 13.8%. Hispanic and Latino older adults follow at 12.2%, while non-Hispanic white older adults have a prevalence of 10.3%. These gaps reflect a mix of factors: differences in rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes (both risk factors for Alzheimer’s), unequal access to healthcare, and socioeconomic conditions that influence brain health across a lifetime.
Where Cases Are Concentrated
California, Florida, and Texas have the highest raw numbers of people with Alzheimer’s, largely because they have the biggest populations of older adults. California alone has an estimated 720,000 people living with the disease. Florida follows with roughly 580,000, and Texas with about 459,000.
When you look at prevalence as a percentage of the 65-and-older population, a different pattern emerges. The highest rates cluster in the East and Southeast. Maryland leads at 12.9%, followed by New York at 12.7%, and Mississippi and Florida tied at 12.5%. These regional differences partly reflect the demographic makeup of each state, including the proportion of racial and ethnic groups with higher baseline risk.
The Financial Weight of the Disease
Alzheimer’s and related dementias cost the United States $781 billion in 2025, a figure calculated by the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. Of that, $232 billion goes directly to medical and long-term care. Medicare covers $106 billion of that bill, Medicaid picks up $58 billion, and patients and their families pay $52 billion out of pocket.
The rest of the economic burden comes from unpaid caregiving. More than 53 million Americans serve as unpaid caregivers for older adults or people with chronic conditions, providing care valued at nearly $470 billion a year. For Alzheimer’s specifically, this means millions of family members reducing work hours, leaving jobs, or spending years managing daily care for someone whose needs intensify over time.
Alzheimer’s as a Cause of Death
Alzheimer’s disease killed 116,022 Americans in 2024, making it the sixth leading cause of death in the country. Unlike heart disease and many cancers, there is no treatment that stops or reverses the progression of Alzheimer’s. Most people live four to eight years after diagnosis, though some live much longer. The disease itself doesn’t cause death directly. Instead, it gradually destroys the brain’s ability to control basic body functions, leading to fatal complications like pneumonia or infection.
What the Projections Show
The number of Americans with Alzheimer’s is expected to reach 13.8 million by 2050, with roughly half of those cases (7 million) in people 85 and older. This surge is driven almost entirely by demographics. The baby boom generation is entering the age range where Alzheimer’s risk is highest, and people are living longer overall. Even if the rate of Alzheimer’s per person stayed exactly the same, the sheer number of older Americans would push the total case count far higher than it is today.