What is young onset dementia?

When dementia affects a person under the age of 65, the medical profession refers to it as ‘early or young onset dementia’.  

Young onset dementia affects adults between the ages of 30-64. It is estimated that there are 42,325 people in the UK living with young onset dementia (Dementia UK, 2nd edition 2014, Alzheimer’s Society). They represent around 5% of the 850,000 people with dementia. This figure could be higher because of the difficulties of diagnosing the condition.  

In Berkshire alone, there are an estimated 539 people living with young onset dementia.