Dementia Care Costs Belgium €7 Billion a Year, Study Finds
Caring for people with dementia costs Belgium more than €7 billion a year, according to a study by the national public health institute Sciensano commissioned by the Alzheimer research foundation Stop Alzheimer. The findings, released on World Alzheimer Day, 21 September, prompted experts to call for immediate investment in research, early diagnosis and support for unpaid carers to keep the burden manageable as the population ages.
According to VRT NWS, an estimated 214,736 people currently live with dementia in Belgium. Driven by ageing, that number is projected to rise to roughly 353,000 by 2050.
Where the Costs Come From
The study breaks the bill into several major components. Medical expenditure for Alzheimer’s and related conditions ran about €2.7 billion higher in 2024 than for people without dementia. Long-term care in residential care centres accounts for a further €1.49 billion per year.
But the largest single element is invisible on most balance sheets: the economic value of unpaid care. Sciensano estimates that informal care is worth about €2.9 billion annually. If all of it were replaced by professional carers, the value would rise to roughly €10.6 billion per year — a figure that illustrates the scale of the work families perform rather than government or institutions.
“Although that care is unpaid, it still has a considerable economic value,” said Masja Schmidt, a researcher at Sciensano. “Many informal carers work less or retire earlier. They also sacrifice free time and other activities to care for their loved one.”
The Human Cost Behind the Figure
The report also quantifies the time carers devote to the task. People who cohabit with someone with dementia spend an average of 139 hours a week on care, supervision and emotional support, while those living separately spend about 50 hours a week. Even after a relative has been admitted to a residential care centre, loved ones still provide around 30 hours of support a week, Medi-Sfeer reported.
The consequences extend beyond time. Forty-one per cent of working informal carers say they have reduced their working hours because of care duties, and 81 per cent report experiencing at least some difficulties with their mental health.
“Behind every diagnosis is a family that often has to adapt from one day to the next,” said Bernd Samyn, spokesperson for Stop Alzheimer. “Informal carers are an essential link, but their role is still insufficiently recognised and supported.”
Costs Projected to Climb
The researchers warn the figures will only grow. In a scenario where the population continues to age and health costs rise by 2 per cent a year, the dementia-attributable healthcare expenditure alone could reach €7.6 billion a year by 2050.
“These figures show that we must act today,” Samyn said. “Investments in research, early diagnosis and better support for informal carers are necessary to keep the consequences of dementia manageable in the future.”
He added a note of realism about the search for a cure. “Only an effective medicine can really bring costs down drastically,” he said. “Unfortunately we are not there yet, but in the meantime ways can also be sought to make care more bearable and affordable.”
Policy Response and a Competing Estimate
Flanders has committed €667,000 to the operation of dementia reference doctors — general practitioners with specific expertise who advise other GPs on dementia questions, aiming to speed up diagnosis and access to help.
“A timely diagnosis and the right support make a world of difference for people with dementia and their loved ones,” said Flemish Minister of Welfare Caroline Gennez. “Everyone deserves the best possible care, even when dementia profoundly changes life.”
The €7 billion figure is not the only estimate in circulation. A separate international study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in July 2026 — part of the COIN-Eu project of the European Academy of Neurology — put the social cost of dementia in Belgium at €4.1 billion a year, or about 1.1 per cent of GDP. That study, co-authored by Prof. Dr. Sebastiaan Engelborghs of UZ Brussel and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, found that informal care represented 58 per cent of the total, according to a UZ Brussel press release.
The gap between the two figures likely reflects differences in methodology, scope and the years of data used, rather than a contradiction in the underlying reality: both studies converge on the same conclusion — that unpaid care is the dominant component of the cost.
“These figures make visible what often remains out of sight: nearly 60 per cent of Belgium’s social cost is borne outside professional care, mainly by partners, children and other loved ones,” Engelborghs said. “Their contribution deserves not only recognition, but also structural support.”
What’s Next
The Sciensano study grew out of a research agenda published in November 2023 by Expertisecentrum Dementie Vlaanderen and Stop Alzheimer, which ranked the most pressing questions for psychosocial research into dementia care. The project was designed so that its results can be integrated into Belgium’s national burden-of-disease study and updated regularly, according to the Expertisecentrum Dementie Vlaanderen.
The results were presented at a Stop Alzheimer congress in Brussels on World Alzheimer Day, co-organised with Expertisecentra Dementie and Alzheimer Liga Vlaanderen. With both a cure still out of reach and the number of people affected set to rise by more than half within a generation, the debate in Belgium is shifting from whether the country can afford to invest in dementia care to whether it can afford not to.