Alzheimer’s Survival Rates by Age
Alzheimer’s disease shortens life after diagnosis, but how much depends on a person’s age at that time. Younger people diagnosed in their 60s or early 70s often live 7 to 10 years afterward. This means they lose 8 to 13 years compared to others their age without the disease, who might expect 15 to 23 more years. For those diagnosed in their 90s, survival drops to about 3 years or less. They lose only around 1.5 years since people that age normally have just 4.5 years left.
These numbers come from studies tracking large groups over time. The disease progresses at different speeds, but the average time from diagnosis to death falls between 3 and 12 years overall. Age plays a big role because the risk of getting Alzheimer’s rises sharply after 65. Every five years past that, the chance roughly doubles.
Survival links to how common the disease is by age group. In the United States, about 5.3 percent of people aged 60 to 74 have Alzheimer’s dementia. That jumps to 13.8 percent for 74 to 84 year olds and 34.6 percent for those over 85. New research shows brain changes tied to Alzheimer’s are rare in the 65 to 69 group, at under 8 percent. But they hit 65 percent in people over 90. This suggests older folks face higher risks and shorter survival once diagnosed.
Mortality rates also climb with age. For those 85 and older, death rates from Alzheimer’s passed 200 per 100,000 by 2020, far above younger groups. Tools like mortality to incidence ratios help measure survival without long tracking studies. These ratios show how death rates compare to new cases, adjusted for age, revealing tougher outcomes in some areas or groups.
Lifetime risks add context. A 65 year old man in the US has about a 19.5 percent chance of developing Alzheimer’s. Women face similar or slightly higher odds when adjusted for longer lifespans. Recent studies find no big difference between sexes at any age.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer’s_disease
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-alzheimer-disease-prevalent-older-people.html
https://www.statista.com/topics/3722/alzheimer-s-disease-and-other-dementias/
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/alzheimers-disease-more-prevalent-in-older-people-than-previously-thought
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12747324/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12753401/
https://www.nber.org/programs-projects/projects-and-centers/ADRD
