In the context of a project to benchmark anti‐dementia drug prescribing practice against standards derived from evidence‐based guidelines, the authors sought to estimate the proportion of people with dementia who were receiving treatment with an anti‐dementia drug and whether this varied across Primary Care Trust (PCT) populations.They also explored the relative proportion of prescriptions for each anti‐dementia drug, and the source of these prescriptions – GPs,Mental HealthTrusts or acuteTrusts. Copyright © 2009 Wiley Interface Ltd