The serious health condition affected around 14 percent of all adults worldwide in 2022, compared to 7 percent in 1990, according to the new study in the journal The Lancet.
Taking the world’s growing population into account, the researchers behind the study estimate that more than 800 million people are now diabetic, compared to less than 200 million in 1990.
These figures include both main types of diabetes. Type 1 affects patients from a young age and is more difficult to treat as it is caused by insulin deficiency. Type 2 mainly affects middle-aged or older people who lose their sensitivity to insulin.
Big variations
Behind the global figures, there are large variations from country to country, according to the study.
The proportion of people with diabetes has remained stable or fallen in some high-income countries, such as Japan, Canada and countries in Western Europe such as France and Denmark.
– The burden of both diabetes and untreated diabetes is increasingly borne by low-income and middle-income countries, the study states.
For example, almost a third of women in Pakistan are now diabetic, compared to less than a tenth in 1990.
The differences are increasing
The researchers emphasize that obesity is an important influencing factor for diabetes type 2, and the same applies to an unhealthy diet.
The differences in how diabetes is treated in richer and poorer countries are also increasing, according to the study.
Three out of five diabetics over the age of 30 with diabetes – 445 million adults – did not receive treatment for diabetes in 2022, the researchers estimate. India alone was home to almost a third of those cases.
In countries in Africa south of the Sahara, only 5 to 10 percent of diabetics received treatment in 2022, the study states.
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