What is actually happening in Diabetes?
What's Happening with the Diabetes Crisis?
5.6 million people have diabetes in the UK — type 2 diagnoses rising 40% since 2010 — costing the NHS £10bn/year, with obesity the primary driver.
Diabetes is one of the fastest-growing long-term conditions in the UK. The number of people diagnosed has risen from around 3.3 million in 2010 to 5.6 million in 2024.[1] Add in the estimated 1 million with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes and a further 13.6 million at high risk of developing it, and the scale of the challenge becomes clear.[1] Type 2 diabetes accounts for 91% of cases and is almost entirely preventable — it is driven by obesity, physical inactivity, and dietary patterns that are themselves shaped by socioeconomic conditions.[2]
The NHS spends around £10bn per year on diabetes — approximately 10% of its entire budget.[3] Around 80% of that cost falls on managing complications: kidney failure, cardiovascular disease, lower limb amputations, and retinopathy.[3] The UK has a higher rate of diabetes-related lower limb amputations than most comparable countries, reflecting both delayed diagnosis and inconsistent access to specialist foot care.[2] Diabetes also drives a substantial share of NHS kidney disease, dialysis, and stroke workload.
Deprivation is a major factor. Type 2 diabetes prevalence is two to three times higher in the most deprived communities compared to the least deprived.[1] South Asian, Black African, and Black Caribbean populations face significantly higher risk at lower BMI thresholds than white European populations — a difference that is not consistently reflected in clinical guidance or screening thresholds.[2]
Sources & Methodology
Diabetes UK — Statistics — prevalence estimates by type. Annual. Retrieved 2024.
NHS Digital — National Diabetes Audit — care processes and outcomes. Annual. Retrieved 2024.
NHS England — Diabetes — expenditure and prevention programme data. Annual. Retrieved 2024.
Prevalence figures are for diagnosed diabetes in the UK. Undiagnosed diabetes is estimated separately. NHS cost figures include all NHS-attributed diabetes spending including complications. All figures are for the UK unless otherwise stated.