The demand for simple, accurate and time-efficient screens to detect cognitive impairment at point-of-care is increasing as the population ages and health costs escalate. Sorting tests are frequently used in neuropsychological assessments to detect the ‘executive’ deficits, which reportedly characterise behavioural-variant FTD (bvFTD), but evidence regarding their suitability as a screen for cognitive impairment in older adults has not yet been compiled. A comprehensive search of four data-bases identified 142 studies that compared the performance of people with a diagnosed neurodegenerative disorder (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, bvFTD, lewy body disease) and cognitively-healthy controls on a published sorting test (e.g. WCST, DKEFS). Hedges g effect sizes compared group performance on five common test scores (category, total, perseveration, error, description). Category scores showed very large effects for the neurodegenerative disorders (g = -1.36) and dementia (g = -1.91). Persons with dementia performed more poorly than other neurodegenerative disorders on category, total, perseveration and error scores, but those with bvFTD did not perform more poorly than other dementias (e.g. Alzheimer’s dementia). This study provides high-level evidence that sorting tests can detect cognitive impairment in multiple neurodegenerative disorders, especially dementia, highlighting their potential for use as a point-of-care cognitive screen in older adults.