Number of people living with diabetes doubles in past 20 years

The number of people living with diabetes has doubled in the last 20 years, a charity has said.

Diabetes UK said the condition is the “fastest growing health crisis of our time” as it found that the number of people diagnosed with the condition across the UK has reached almost 3.7 million an increase of 1.9 million since 1998.

Meanwhile, a further 12.3 million people are at an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, according to the charity’s analysis.

Diabetes affects one in 25 people in Scotland, according to current statistics – more than 228,000 people.

The number of people diagnosed with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes has increased by almost 100,000 in the UK since last year – from 3,590,501 to 3,689,509. Bradford has the UK’S highest prevalence of diabetes, with one in ten people in the city diagnosed with the condition. The lowest prevalence is in Richmond, west London, where just 3.6 per cent of people are living with a diagnosis, the charity found. The UK average is 6.6 per cent.

The charity also estimates that there are nearly one million people who have diabetes but are not aware of it. Almost nine in ten people diagnosed with the disease have Type 2 diabetes, which has been linked to lifestyle factors such as obesity.

Diabetes UK chief executive Chris Askew said: “Diabetes is the fastest growing health crisis of our time; and the fact diagnoses have doubled in just 20 years should give all of us serious pause for thought.”