Bad brain health costs $5 trillion/year, and the world is waking up to the crisis

Brain health disorders, including Alzheimer’s, dementia, depression and stroke-related cognitive decline, currently cost the global economy $5 trillion per year. By 2030, this value is projected to reach US$16 trillion. Yet, until recently, this crisis barely appeared in the rooms where economic policies are formulated.

That changed at Davos in January. On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, conversations began to connect brain health not just to healthcare budgets, but also to workforce productivity and the competitive positioning of companies and countries in the age of AI.

Also read: How does the brain of an extremely lucid elderly person work?

Much of this discussion has focused on a new report from the World Economic Forum and the McKinsey Health Institute. Three lines of reflection from these conversations deserve to reach a much wider audience:

1. The AI ​​economy works on healthy brains

The paradox at the heart of the AI ​​revolution: the more artificial intelligence automates routine work, the more valuable human intelligence and creativity become. 21st century jobs will require higher-level thinking, creativity, and adaptive problem-solving skills. The age of AI is, at the same time, the age of brain capital.

Harris Eyre, neuroscientist and co-author of the report presented at Davos, says it bluntly: companies and countries that invest in brain health will have workforces capable of thriving in the transition to AI.

By 2050, the global ratio of working-age adults to retirees will fall from about 8 to 1 to 4 to 1. We need every brain functioning at full capacity.

Brains weakened by Alzheimer’s and mental health disorders not only rob individuals of their future, they also reduce the capacity of current workers, turning many of them into caregivers.

A company’s focus on the brain health and resilience of its workforce is neither healthcare philanthropy nor just another HR issue. It’s a strategic imperative for boards and CEOs navigating the AI ​​era.

The Global Brain Capital Index, launched in Davos, maps investments in cognitive health against economic productivity in terms that finance ministers and development banks can act on.

It offers a common language for translating a health crisis into economic policy — and it is already changing the way governments frame their obligations in the face of an aging population.

2. Women are the most affected — and also the most powerful force for change

Almost two-thirds of people living with Alzheimer’s are women, who also provide more than 60% of the world’s unpaid care for people with dementia, sacrificing wages, career advancement and their own health.

If you want to understand why the gender pay gap persists and why female labor force participation levels off in middle age, dementia is part of the answer.

But there is another dimension that is rarely told alongside this story. An estimated $84 trillion in assets will be transferred between generations in the United States alone over the next two decades.

As women live several years longer than men, much of this wealth will pass through female hands. McKinsey projects that American women will control much of baby boomers’ $30 trillion by 2030.

Women are simultaneously the main victims of Alzheimer’s, the main caregivers and the future main holders of the private capital that can finance the next generation of research and prevention.

Engaging them as economic decision makers and impact investors is one of the most underutilized opportunities in brain health.

3. The Global South can leapfrog if we build the infrastructure now

By 2050, India will see its over-60 population grow by 300 million or more, and Africa alone will account for more than 200 million cases of dementia.

Seventy percent of all global cases will occur in low- and middle-income countries. But these countries are not just the future epicenter of the dementia burden; they are also home to the fastest growing working-age populations on the planet.

A brain health crisis not addressed in these regions is not confined to them. It reduces productivity, burdens care systems, and limits the very economic growth on which global supply chains, investment portfolios, and development strategies depend.

Investing in early detection and prevention infrastructure in the Global South is not charity. It’s a form of protection against the more predictable disruption of the workforce over the next half-century.

Still, 90% of current genetic studies occur in just 10% of the world’s population, meaning treatments developed today may not work for the communities that will face the greatest burden of disease tomorrow.

Countries in the Global South have a real chance to leapfrog the fragmented and reactive health systems that developed nations built in the 20th century, integrating early detection into primary care and building capacity for clinical trials from the start.

Lower-cost, non-therapeutic prevention solutions developed in the Global South can also help the Global North deal with its own Alzheimer’s burden: at the end of the day, treatments that work for everyone require input from everyone.

This year, Davos spoke about brain health in an unprecedented way. The harder work — broadening these conversations beyond just health ministries to include finance ministries, CEO boardrooms, insurance and pension fund boards, and corporate and national AI strategies — is the next step.

The question is whether enough people inside boardrooms and government offices understand what is at stake.