Dementia Research Funding: Rising in a Few Rich Countries, Short of the Need
Published 2026-10-16
Dementia research funding has grown fast, but mainly in a few high-income countries, and after years in which it received far less than other major conditions relative to the harm dementia does. The US National Institutes of Health now spends about six times what it did a decade ago, in cash terms. In the UK in 2012, dementia research received 8 pence for every £10 that dementia cost in health and social care, against £1.08 for cancer.
Research funding can feel remote from daily life with dementia, but it decides what is possible: whether there is a better test at the memory clinic, a treatment worth asking about, evidence on how to support someone to stay at home, or a trial that families can join. For a long time people living with dementia and their carers were told, in effect, that little could be done. Part of the reason is that little was spent finding out. This study sets out what the published figures show about how much money goes into dementia research, where it goes, how that has changed, and where the counting itself runs out.
At the US National Institutes of Health, dementia research funding rose about six-fold in ten years
The deepest public record of dementia research spending we found is the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research, Condition, and Disease Categorization (RCDC) system, which reports how much NIH spends in each research, condition and disease category every fiscal year. We use it as a worked case, because no other country we looked at publishes a comparable annual series.
In fiscal year 2015, NIH spending on Alzheimer's disease including Alzheimer's disease related dementias (AD/ADRD) was $631 million. By 2020 it was $2.87 billion, and in 2025 it was $3.88 billion: about six times the 2015 level in cash terms[1]. Most of that money is categorised as Alzheimer's disease ($3.62 billion in 2025); the related dementias, such as frontotemporal, Lewy body and vascular dementia, accounted for $970 million, and the two overlap[1]. WHO, launching its 2021 global status report, cited this rise as an example of a recent increase in dementia research funding, "mainly in high-income countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States of America"[4].
The growth has slowed. AD/ADRD funding rose by $382 million between 2020 and 2021, but by $98 million between 2023 and 2024 and by $23 million, under 1%, between 2024 and 2025[1]. These are cash figures, not adjusted for inflation, so in real terms recent spending has been flat at best. NIH has not published category estimates for 2026 or 2027, saying they "are not provided by category at this time" because of "evolving changes in the administration priorities"[1].
Measured against what it costs, dementia received the least in the UK in 2012
Raw totals only mean something next to other conditions. In the NIH data for fiscal year 2025, AD/ADRD research ($3.88 billion) was about half of cancer research ($7.85 billion), but above HIV/AIDS ($3.29 billion), cardiovascular research ($2.88 billion), diabetes ($1.10 billion) and stroke ($422 million)[1]. NIH categories overlap, since one project can count towards several, so these totals cannot be added up or read as shares of the NIH budget. Ten years earlier the order was very different: in 2015, cancer received $5.39 billion and AD/ADRD $631 million[1].
The most careful comparison with the burden of disease that we found comes from the UK. Luengo-Fernandez and colleagues added up research funding from UK government agencies and charities for four conditions in 2012. Of £856 million in total, £544 million (64%) went to cancer, £166 million (19%) to coronary heart disease, £90 million (11%) to dementia and £56 million (7%) to stroke[2].
They then set that funding against what each condition cost the UK's health and social care systems. For every £10 of those costs, cancer received £1.08 in research funding, coronary heart disease 65p, stroke 19p and dementia 8p[2]. The authors concluded that dementia and stroke "remain underfunded when compared with the burden of disease"[2].
The same study recorded real movement. In 2008, 9% of UK government research funding for the four conditions went to dementia and 66% to cancer; by 2012, dementia's share had risen to 21% and cancer's had fallen to 45%[2]. These figures are now more than a decade old, and we did not find a published update using the same method, so they describe how wide the gap was, not how wide it is today.
Pledges are easier to find than spending
Outside the United States, the published record is mostly announcements and multi-year totals, which makes it hard to tell whether promises were kept. In the UK, the government said in a 2023 parliamentary answer that in 2019 it had "committed to double funding for dementia research to £160 million per year by 2024/25", and that it "spent over £413 million on dementia research from 2017/18 to 2021/22"[5]. The same answer described the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Mission, launched in August 2022 "along with £95 million of funding"[5]. We did not find an official single-year figure that shows whether the £160 million a year was reached in 2024/25.
Canada's federal health research funder, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, groups dementia work within a wider brain health and cognitive impairment in aging initiative. Its published announcements include a C$38.3 million research investment in brain health in March 2023 and C$44.8 million from the Government of Canada and partners for healthy brain aging in July 2025[6]. Announcements like these are useful signals, but they are not an annual series: they can run over several years and cover more than dementia, so they cannot be compared with the NIH figures.
In Europe, the EU Joint Programme on Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) describes itself as "the largest global research initiative aimed at tackling the challenge of neurodegenerative diseases", with 27 member countries and research running from 2011 to 2025[7]. Its home page does not give a total for what it has invested.
Europe's experience: more money did not guarantee faster results
The fullest European figures we found come from a 2024 analysis of the European Commission's research framework programmes between 1999 and 2019, by Jakovljevic and colleagues. Counting grants where the Commission contributed at least €200,000, Alzheimer's disease projects grew "ten times" in value, "from EUR 44 million in FP5 to EUR 452 million in FP7", before falling to €272 million under Horizon 2020[8]. Over the two decades, Alzheimer's projects totalled about €988 million, including €717 million from the Commission, almost the same as breast cancer at €979 million (€805 million from the Commission)[8].
The authors judged that, "Unlike oncology, dementia drug development has been way less successful", without "any ground-breaking disease-modifying treatment(s)" in that period[8], and they linked the smaller Horizon 2020 budget to the "significant lack of tangible output in this area in terms of causal treatment innovation"[8]. WHO made a similar point globally: "A series of unsuccessful clinical trials for treatments for dementia, combined with the high costs of research and development, led to declining interest in new efforts"[4]. The risk is a cycle in which slow progress becomes a reason to spend less. What the newest Alzheimer's treatments have and have not changed is covered in new Alzheimer's treatments.
Most people with dementia live where research money is scarcest
WHO estimates that 57 million people were living with dementia in 2021, "over 60% of whom live in low-and middle-income countries", with nearly 10 million new cases a year[3]. Dementia is the seventh leading cause of death worldwide, and in 2019 it cost economies an estimated US$1.3 trillion[3]. The pattern of how that cost is shared is covered in the cost of dementia care.
Every funding series we could verify comes from a high-income country or the European Union. WHO in 2021 placed the recent rise "mainly in high-income countries"[4]. We found no official source that tracks dementia research funding for low- and middle-income countries, and no up-to-date global total we could verify at source. Even the WHO Global Dementia Observatory depends on what countries choose to report: by 2021, 62 countries had submitted data, 56% of them high-income[4]. How countries' wider dementia responses compare is set out in our international comparison.
Who shapes research matters as much as how much there is. WHO found that, in research, "two-thirds of countries reporting to the Global Dementia Observatory involve people with dementia 'rarely' or not at all"[4], and named the inclusion of people with dementia, their carers and families as "an important focus of future research efforts"[4].
What the evidence asks of us
The figures point to a few clear asks of governments, research funders and charities.
- Publish what is spent, every year, by condition. The US shows that an annual, condition-level series is possible. Without one, pledges such as the UK's £160 million a year[5] cannot be checked, and people affected by dementia cannot hold funders to them. National funders could report dementia spending alongside cancer, heart disease and stroke on the same basis, and the WHO Global Dementia Observatory could collect it.
- Judge funding against the harm, not against last year. In the UK in 2012 dementia received 8p of research funding per £10 of care costs, against £1.08 for cancer[2]. Repeating that kind of comparison regularly, in more countries, would show whether the gap is closing.
- Hold steady through setbacks. WHO, and the analysis of European Commission programmes, both link failed or unproductive trials to falling interest and spending[4][8]. Long-term, stable funding protects the research that only pays off over many years.
- Fund research where most people with dementia live. More than 60% of people with dementia live in low- and middle-income countries[3], yet every funding series we could verify comes from high-income countries. WHO's Blueprint for dementia research (2022) sets out 15 strategic goals for research worldwide[9], and its global action plan, which includes research and innovation, now runs to 2031[3].
- Put people with dementia and carers at the table. Two-thirds of countries reporting to WHO involve people with dementia rarely or not at all[4]. Funders can require involvement in setting priorities, designing studies and judging what counts as success, including research on care and support, not only on drugs.
None of this is a call to take money from other conditions. It is a call to fund dementia research in proportion to what dementia does to people, families and health and care systems, and to count the money openly enough that anyone can check. More on how many people are affected, now and in future, is in dementia prevalence and projections, and the full library is at Dementia & Health research.
Language: this piece uses person-first language ("people living with dementia", "people with dementia"), as most dementia organisations and people with lived experience prefer, and uses clinical terms such as "Alzheimer's disease" or "mild cognitive impairment" only where a study, dataset or diagnosis refers to that specific condition.
Why we're publishing this
Dementia charities, carers' organisations and people living with dementia have argued for years that research funding has not matched the scale of the condition. That case is stronger when the numbers behind it are easy to find, clearly sourced and honest about their limits. We have brought together the official figures we could verify so that the organisations making that case can cite them, and so that the gaps in the record are visible too.
How to read this data
- US figures are NIH spending by RCDC category, actual fiscal years 2015 to 2025, in US dollars not adjusted for inflation[1]. They cover NIH only, not other US government agencies, charities or industry. Categories overlap, so they cannot be added together.
- UK figures for 2008 and 2012 are a peer-reviewed analysis of government and charity funding for four conditions[2]. The 2017/18 to 2021/22 total and the £160 million pledge are government statements in Parliament[5], not a published statistical series.
- European figures cover European Commission framework programme grants above €200,000 from 1999 to 2019, for Alzheimer's disease rather than all dementias, and exclude national funding in member states[8].
- Canadian figures are announcement totals for brain health and aging programmes[6], not dementia-only annual spending.
- Different countries, currencies and methods cannot be lined up as a single trend or league table. Pharmaceutical industry research spending is not included in any of these figures.
- Gaps: we could not verify Australia's national dementia research funding (the official page did not load), a current global total, or any funding series for a low- or middle-income country. These are gaps in what we found, not proof that no such data exist.
Use this data
Free to cite with attribution to Understanding Aging. Charities, carers' groups, campaigners and journalists are welcome to reuse these figures and charts. For the underlying figures as a spreadsheet, get in touch.
Important: This article summarises published research and statistics for general information. It is not medical, care or financial advice and cannot be used to diagnose, treat or predict anything about an individual. If you have concerns about your own or someone else's memory or health, please speak to a GP or another qualified health professional.
Sources
- National Institutes of Health. Estimates of Funding for Various Research, Condition, and Disease Categories (RCDC), FY 2008 to FY 2025. NIH RePORT, 2026. report.nih.gov/funding/categorical-spending
- Luengo-Fernandez R, Leal J, Gray A. UK research spend in 2008 and 2012: comparing stroke, cancer, coronary heart disease and dementia. BMJ Open, 2015. europepmc.org/article/MED/25869683
- World Health Organization. Dementia: fact sheet. WHO, 2026. who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia
- World Health Organization. World failing to address dementia challenge (news release on the Global status report on the public health response to dementia). WHO, 2021. who.int/news/item/02-09-2021-world-failing-to-address-dementia-challenge
- UK Parliament. Dementia: research. Written question 200979, answered by the Department of Health and Social Care, 23 October 2023. UK Parliament, 2023. questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-10-13/200979
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Brain Health and Cognitive Impairment in Aging Research Initiative. CIHR, 2026. cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/43629.html
- EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND). Home page. JPND, 2026. neurodegenerationresearch.eu
- Jakovljevic M, Deceuninck P, Pistollato F, et al. Return on investment in science: twenty years of European Commission funded research in Alzheimer's dementia, breast cancer and prostate cancer. Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation, 2024. europepmc.org/article/MED/38880873
- World Health Organization. A blueprint for dementia research. WHO, 2022. who.int/publications/i/item/9789240058248