By the numbers: New estimates from the IDF Diabetes Atlas Update for 2012

Abstract

There is no country in the world that does not bear some burden from diabetes. The IDF Diabetes Atlas Update for 2012 confirms that cases are increasing everywhere and at an alarming pace. Today, there are an estimated 371 million adults living with diabetes. To put this number into perspective: if all the people with diabetes formed a country, it would be the third most populous country after China and India. Four out of five of the people with diabetes live in lowand middle-income countries, where health systems are struggling to keep pace with the rising burden of non-communicable disease. Not surprisingly, the countries with the highest numbers of people with diabetes are also those with the largest populations: China, India, the United States, Brazil, and the Russian Federation. The top 10 countries for numbers of people with diabetes account for two-thirds of all cases in the world. All but two of those countries are in active economic development. While large countries have many people with diabetes, the world’s smallest nations are by no means exempt. Western Pacific Islands dominate the list of countries with the highest percentage of the population living with diabetes. In such countries, diabetes is almost the norm and not the exception, with more than one quarter of adults over 20 living with the disease. It is not just cases of diabetes that are on the rise; deaths due to diabetes are also increasing. New evidence informs estimates that there were 4.8 million deaths in adults attributable to diabetes in 2012. That is the equivalent of one death every 7 s. Most of those deaths occurred in middle-income countries where the mortality rate due to diabetes is also higher than in high-income countries. The difference in rates can be explained partially by the fact that there is an overall higher death rate in lowand middle-income countries; but it may also reflect health systems that are not equipped to respond effectively to the diabetes epidemic.