Social functioning is fundamental to human experience. The profound social functioning impairments affecting people with dementia are distressing to them and their families and account for significant individual, family and societal burden. There are no effective treatments that improve this major aspect of dementia, so there is urgent need to characterise social functioning decline in dementia and its consequences to inform future therapeutic approaches. In this symposium, an international panel will present perspectives on social functioning in dementia from across the disease course.