Approximately 530 million people worldwide have type 2 diabetes. That estimate comes from the most recent global data: about 589 million adults are living with diabetes as of 2024, and type 2 accounts for over 90% of all cases. The number has grown dramatically over the past few decades and is projected to keep climbing.
The Global Numbers
The 2025 edition of the IDF Diabetes Atlas, the most widely cited global tracker, reports that 589 million adults between the ages of 20 and 79 are living with diabetes. That works out to 11.1% of the world’s adult population, or roughly 1 in 9 people. A 2021 analysis published in The Lancet found that type 2 diabetes specifically accounted for 96% of all diabetes cases, which puts the type 2 total somewhere around 530 to 565 million people depending on how precisely you slice the data.
These figures only count adults. They also likely undercount the true number, because millions of people with type 2 diabetes have never been diagnosed. Research from the IDF and related studies consistently shows that under-diagnosis is a major gap, particularly in lower-income countries where screening and healthcare access are limited.
Where Diabetes Is Growing Fastest
Type 2 diabetes is not spread evenly around the world. The NCD Risk Factor Collaboration estimated that more than 800 million adults had diabetes globally in 2022 using a broader measurement methodology, and found that the total had quadrupled since 1990. The largest increases occurred in low-income and middle-income countries, where rapid urbanization, shifts toward processed diets, and limited healthcare infrastructure have created a perfect environment for the disease to spread.
Between-country inequities are stark. Wealthier nations generally have higher diagnosis rates, meaning more people know they have the condition and can manage it. In lower-income countries, many cases go undetected entirely. This gap in diagnosis drives a gap in treatment: people who don’t know they have diabetes can’t manage their blood sugar, which leads to higher rates of complications like kidney disease, vision loss, and cardiovascular problems.
Age and Risk
Type 2 diabetes becomes dramatically more common with age. U.S. data from the CDC illustrates this clearly: 28.8% of adults aged 65 and older have diabetes, compared to much lower rates among adults aged 18 to 44. New diagnoses also spike in middle age, with incidence rates climbing sharply among people aged 45 to 64.
This age pattern holds globally, though the exact numbers vary by country. In many parts of South Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific Islands, type 2 diabetes develops earlier in life and at lower body weights than in Western populations, meaning the age curve shifts younger in those regions.
The Economic Weight
Diabetes now consumes 12% of all global healthcare spending. On average, $1,760 is spent per person with diabetes each year on treatment and complication management. That per-person figure represents a 338% increase over the past 17 years, driven by both rising case numbers and the increasing cost of care.
The financial burden falls unevenly. High-income countries spend far more per patient but also achieve better outcomes. In lower-income settings, out-of-pocket costs for insulin and basic monitoring can be catastrophic for families, and many people simply go without treatment.
Projected Growth
Every major projection points in the same direction: the number of people with type 2 diabetes will continue to rise significantly through at least 2050. Population aging, rising obesity rates, and the ongoing urbanization of low- and middle-income countries are the primary drivers. Some models project the global diabetes total could exceed 1.3 billion by mid-century if current trends hold.
The speed of that growth depends heavily on whether prevention efforts gain traction. Type 2 diabetes is closely tied to modifiable risk factors, particularly excess body weight, physical inactivity, and diets high in refined carbohydrates. Countries that have invested in population-level prevention programs (taxes on sugary drinks, urban planning that encourages walking, screening programs in primary care) have seen some slowing of new cases, but nowhere near enough to reverse the overall trend.