Poor brain health costs the world economy $5 trillion a year. The world is waking up to the crisis

vradenburg (Credit: courtesy of the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative)

Brain health disorders including Alzheimer’s, dementia, depression, and stroke-related cognitive decline currently cost the global economy $5 trillion a year. By 2030, that figure is projected to reach $16 trillion. And yet, until recently, this crisis barely registered in the rooms where economic policy gets made.

That changed at Davos this January. On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, conversations connected brain health not just to healthcare budgets but also to workforce productivity and to the competitive positioning of companies and nations in the age of AI. Much of it coalesced around a new report from the World Economic Forum and the McKinsey Health Institute. Three threads from those conversations deserve a much wider audience.