There are 5.5 million Americans with Alzheimer's Disease today.
This number is projected to grow to 13.8 Million Americans by 2050, according to the journal Neurology.
In order to put this in context, we compared the projected growth of Alzheimer's Disease with the projected populations of all 50 US States.
All to answer the question: If Alzheimer's Patients were their own state, how high would they rank?

Introduction to Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease is a devastating condition that causes progressive memory loss and loss of cognitive ability.
Alzheimer's leads to dementia, and is ultimately fatal. Over the course of the disease, patients lose the ability to hold conversations, take care of themselves, or even remember loved ones.
There is no cure for Alzheimer's Disease. Current treatments can reduce the severity of the symptoms but cannot stop the progression of the disease.

Number of Alzheimer's Patients in 2020

There will be an estimated 5.5 Million Alzheimer's patients in 2020
If Alzheimer's patients were a state in 2020, they would be the 23rd most populous state, ranking just ahead of Minnesota
There are more Americans with Alzheimer’s Disease than the populations of the 27 states highlighted below.

By 2030, there will be 8.4 Million Americans with Alzheimer's Disease.
If Alzheimer's patients were a state in 2030, they would be the 14th most populous state, ranking just ahead of Minnesota

By 2040, there will be 11.6 Million Americans with Alzheimer's Disease.
If Alzheimer's patients were a state in 2040, they would be the 10th most populous state.
There will be more Americans with Alzheimer's disease than the projected populations of Michigan and Virginia.

Most of this growth will be driven by baby boomers and an aging population.
As the baby boomers reach old age, we expect many of them to develop Alzheimer’s Disease.
We also expect patients to live longer, in fact by 2050, nearly half of the projected 13.8 million Alzheimer’s Disease patients will be age 85 or older.