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People with dementia are often isolated because of stigma or the possibility of negative reactions from neighbours and relatives to behavioural and psychological symptoms. Urgent action is required to improve the understanding of dementia and so reduce stigma. With this aim Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) has produced a report on stigma in September 2012. ADI conducted an anonymous online survey of people with dementia and family carers about their experiences of stigma. The survey was accessible to all visitors to the ADI website and the survey link was emailed to many contacts within the Alzheimer's field. The response to our survey was much larger than expected, with around 2,500 responses from 54 countries. In the English version of the survey, 127 respondents were people with dementia and 1716 were family or informal carers. More than half of the respondents have some connection to an Alzheimer's organisation or service provider and the people with dementia were very likely to have received a diagnosis and were aware of available services. Thus, the people who answered our survey may be less affected by stigma than those who the survey did not reach. Nearly two out of three respondents, both people with the disease and family carers, feel that there is little or no understanding of dementia in their countries. By overwhelming margins, both people with dementia and carers believe that within their country there are negative associations for those diagnosed. People with dementia can be treated well, but it does not happen to the majority of respondents. One in four (24%) cited stigma as a reason to conceal their diagnosis from others. The aim of this report is to promote an enabling society for people with dementia in order to reduce stigma and share best practices in how this can be done. Stigma could be a major barrier to finding solutions for the problems related to dementia, including low rates of diagnosis and service utilisation. Therefore, it is essential to take action to reduce stigma. The findings are summarised in ten key recommendations to overcome the stigma of dementia.