The expected increase in the number of people suffering from dementia is intertwined with the ageing Nordic population. More and more older adults will live with dementia diseases impacting their everyday lives.

The Nordic societies are trying to adjust to this challenge and to the rising needs of good dementia care. In parallel, mounting evidence on the efficacy of dementia prevention encourages the Nordic countries to upgrade their preventive work, and to mitigate the effects of cognitive decline in the population.

This report explores dementia prevention in the Nordics and provides examples of preventive policies and practices. It also reviews these measures in relation to current evidence on dementia prevention, striving to strengthen Nordic co-operation in the field.

The report describes the current policy and practice of dementia prevention in Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland with Åland Islands. Methodologically, the knowledge base for this report rests on a descriptive analysis extracting, systematising, and presenting data from literature and documents, individual interviews, and information and discussion from a reference group.