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Background Dementia has become the leading cause of disability in elderly worldwide. It contributes to the care burden in many countries with an ageing population, including Indonesia. Since most of the elderly population with AD live in their homes and cared for by their family members, family and community play a key role in caring and supporting dementia patients. Their knowledge about dementia and attitudes towards dementia patients will impact on the quality of care, but studies on this are scarce in Indonesia. Objectives This study aims to investigate the knowledge and attitudes towards people with dementia among general population in Yogyakarta. Design Cross sectional study using survey questionnaire. Setting General population attending free seminars about dementia held by Alzheimer Indonesia in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Participants 210 people from accros Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Method The data was collected using two instruments The Alzheimers Disease Knowledge Scale (ADKS) and the Bryans Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS). The questionnaire included three sections demographic information, knowledge of AD, and attitudes toward AD patients. The data was analysed using quantitative method. Results Participants overall AD knowledge score was low compared with scores in a similar study (M17,17 out of 30 SD 2,9, n 210). Their attitudes towards dementia patient were identified as optimism and pessimism attitudes. However, general population attitudes towards AD patients were mostly pessimistic ( M21, 88 out of 50 SD 3,49, n203). Knowledge about demensia did not correlate with attitude, gender, education, having family suffered from dementia as well as previous seminar in dementia topic. Conclusions: Specific education towards dementia is needed to improve the knowledge and attitudes of general population in Yogyakarta. Keywords: dementia, knowledge, attitudes, general populaton