Almost half of older adults in assisted living communities live with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, underscoring the sector’s important role in keeping people well as they age.
That’s according to a report from AARP, which examined the growing role of assisted living in caring for older adults and the shift away from higher acuity nursing homes.
Forty-four percent of assisted living residents are living with some form of cognitive decline, compared to just 41% of residents in nursing homes with the same diagnoses, according to the AARP report, which cited 2022 data from the National Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Study. In 2020, 408,000 people age 85 and older lived in assisted living, and that number rose to 522,000 by 2022, representing a 28% increase in just two years. For comparison, 360,000 residents 85 or older lived in nursing homes in 2022.
Meanwhile, the number of residents with an Alzheimer’s or dementia diagnosis in nursing homes declined to 41% in 2022, down from 49% in 2012. The number of assisted living residents with dementia or Alzheimer’s rose to 44% in that time frame, up from 40% in 2012.
Assisted living residents commonly live with chronic conditions that necessitate help with activities of daily living. According to the National Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Study, more than a quarter of assisted living residents, 26%, lived with depression, while 58% lived with high blood pressure, 33% lived with heart disease and 16% lived with diabetes.
Assisted living operators face a growing divide between demand for their services and the availability of units. From 2020 to 2022, the number of units for assisted living rose 9%, while the number of residents in that time span rose by 24%, according to information from the National Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Study and the National Center for Health Statistics.
Assisted living services are also unaffordable to a wide swath of potential residents. The median cost of assisted living was $70,800 per year in 2024, according to that year’s Cost of Care Survey from Genworth, while the average household income for adults aged 75 and up was only $47,790. Nursing homes are even more expensive, costing over $111,000 for a semiprivate room and $127,000 for a private room annually.
“Until federal action makes assisted living more reliable, transparent, and accessible, states need to fill the role as regulators or face the reality of substandard care for older adults,” wrote the report’s author, Paul Lingamfelter, who is is a policy advisor at the AARP Public Policy Institute. “As the number of residents with memory care needs and those in the oldest demographic continues to climb in assisted living, the need for oversight and accountability grows with them.”
