Three New Zealanders are developing dementia every hour, according to alarming new research from Auckland University, with a total of 500 new cases every week.
The study commissioned by Alzheimer's NZ shows:
- One in four Kiwis will die with dementia
- Nearly 170,000 New Zealanders will live with dementia by 2050
- Annual costs will top $10 billion – double today's
- Rates will climb fastest among Māori, Pacific and Asian communities
Alzheimer's NZ chief executive Catherine Hall said dementia was "not a problem for the future".
"It's one of the greatest health challenges New Zealand faces now.
"If we don't act urgently, it risks overwhelming our health and aged care systems — and the impact on families, communities, and the economy will be enormous."
Alzheimer's NZ and Dementia NZ has joined with the NZ Dementia Foundation and Te Mate Wareware Advisory Rōpū to publish a refreshed Dementia Mate Wareware Action Plan 2026-2031.
The first Dementia Mate Wareware Action Plan, published in 2020, was endorsed at the time by the Labour-led government, which provided some limited funding in 2022 to support pilot projects.
However, no further action or funding had followed and the plan was never fully realised, Hall said.
The "refreshed" Action Plan — presented to Associate Health Minister Casey Costello at the Alzheimer's NZ summit on Wednesday — sets out five priority areas to tackle in the next five years:
- Taking action to promote brain health in a bid to reduce dementia prevalence
- Ensuring timely and accurate diagnosis and comprehensive management planning for people living with dementia
- Improving community dementia support services
- Better supporting both the formal and informal dementia workforces
- Providing more effective governance for and within the dementia sector
Alzheimer's NZ is also calling on the Government to:
- Fairly fund the country's 17 chronically under-funded dementia services
- Create a national older persons' health and aged care strategy, built on an integrated continuum of care
"New Zealand faces a massive demographic shift in the next 20 years, and with it will come a huge number of new dementia cases, potentially overwhelming the health system and creating a major fiscal burden, unless we act now," Hall said.
"Decisive action is needed, and Government must step up with funding and policies to support Kiwis living with dementia."
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