TOKYO- The number of dementia sufferers who went missing in 2016 rose by 3,224 from the previous year to 15,432, police said Thursday.

The figure hit a record high for the fourth straight year. The survey by the National Police Agency was launched in 2012.

Including those who went missing in 2015 or before, 15,314 were located last year.

Of them, 9,756 were found by police, while 4,950 were found by their families or returned home by themselves. A total of 471 were found dead.

Those located on the day when their disappearances were reported to police came to 11,095, or more than 70 percent of the total, while 15,069, or 98.4 pct, were found within a week.

The overall number of people who went missing in the country in 2016 stood at 84,850, almost unchanged for the past decade.

People aged between 10 and 19 accounted for 17,118, the largest proportion. Family-related factors, including parent-child discords, were behind more than half of those whose motivations were identified. (Jiji Press)