Statistics show that dementia outpaced heart disease to take the top place in killer ailments for women, BBC News says.

Heart disease continues to be the biggest killer of men in those countries, the article says.

The Office of National Statistics cited an aging population and a decline in other deaths – especially heart disease – as the reasons.

Also, doctors have gotten better at diagnosing dementia and so the condition is now given more weight on death certificates, the article adds.

Last year, more than 61,000 people died of dementia – 11.6 percent of all recorded deaths, that agency says.

Statistics also show the disease killed twice the number of women compared to men – 41,283, compared to 20,403, the agency adds.

Dementia - including Alzheimer's disease, accounted for 15.2 percent of all female deaths, up from 13.4 percent in 2014.

There are around 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK, the statistics report says.

All types of cancer as a group remains the most common cause of death overall, the article notes.