Diabetes is less controlled and has greater complications among racial and ethnic minorities

  • Prevalence: In 2019, 37.3 million Americans, or 11.3% of the population, had diabetes.
    • Nearly 1.9 million Americans have type 1 diabetes, including about 244,000 children and adolescents
  • Diagnosed and undiagnosed: Of the 37.3 million adults with diabetes, 28.7 million were diagnosed, and 8.5 million were undiagnosed.
  • Prevalence in seniors: The percentage of Americans age 65 and older remains high, at 29.2%, or 15.9 million seniors (diagnosed and undiagnosed).
  • New cases: 1.4 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes every year.
  • Prediabetes: In 2019, 96 million Americans age 18 and older had prediabetes.
  • About 283,000 Americans under age 20 are estimated to have diagnosed diabetes, approximately 0.35% of that population.
  • In 2014–2015, the annual incidence of diagnosed diabetes in youth was estimated at 18,200 with type 1 diabetes, 5,800 with type 2 diabetes.

The rates of diagnosed diabetes in adults by race/ethnic background are:

  • 14.5% of American Indians/Alaskan Natives
  • 12.1% of non-Hispanic blacks
  • 11.8% of Hispanics
  • 9.5% of Asian Americans
  • 7.4% of non-Hispanic whites

The breakdown among Asian Americans:

  • 5.6% of Chinese
  • 10.4% of Filipinos
  • 12.6% of Asian Indians
  • 9.9% of other Asian Americans

The breakdown among Hispanic adults:

  • 8.3% of Central and South Americans
  • 6.5% of Cubans
  • 14.4% of Mexican Americans
  • 12.4% of Puerto Ricans

Deaths

Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the United States in 2019 based on the 87,647 death certificates in which diabetes was listed as the underlying cause of death. In 2019, diabetes was mentioned as a cause of death in a total of 282,801 certificates.

Cost of diabetes

Updated March 22, 2018

$327 billion: Total cost of diagnosed diabetes in the United States in 2017

$237 billion was for direct medical costs

$90 billion was in reduced productivity

After adjusting for population age and sex differences, average medical expenditures among people with diagnosed diabetes were 2.3 times higher than what expenditures would be in the absence of diabetes.

Read more about the results of our study "Economic Costs of Diabetes in the U.S. in 2017."

For additional information

For additional information, read the CDC National Diabetes Statistics Report (2022).

Page updated 7/28/22.

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Page 2

  Non-Hispanic Whites (weighted%) Non-Hispanic Blacks (weighted%) Hispanics (%) p-value
N* 4289 1337 1196  
Mean Age (years) 58.4 54.8 52.0 <0.001
Sex     <0.001
Female 2124 (46.8) 801 (55.7) 660 (50.3)  
Has health Insurance† 3893 (93.2) 1124 (88.1) 854 (75.9) <0.001
General health status‡     <0.001
Excellent/very good 1237 (28.7) 256 (19.4) 273 (25.9)  
Good/fair 2645 (62.1) 922 (69.3) 819 (66.2)  
Poor 404 (9.1) 158 (11.3) 104 (7.9)  
Region     <0.001
Northeast 718 (17.2) 172 (15.8) 165 (14.0)  
Midwest 1212 (29.0) 209 (17.0) 100 (9.8)  
South 1539 (38.2) 833 (58.3) 438 (37.6)  
West 820 (15.6) 123 (8.9) 493 (38.6)  
Hypertension§ 3033 (70.1) 1076 (78.1) 716 (58.9) <0.001
Taking oral diabetes medication 1093 (24.5) 339 (24.8) 327 (28.3) 0.07
Taking insulin 567 (12.2) 252 (17.2) 141 (11.5) <0.001
BMI||     0.11
< 18.5 20 (0.4) 3 (0.2) 4 (0.4)  
18.5 – 24.9 423 (9.3) 129 (9.3) 127 (9.5)  
25.0 – 29.9 1166 (28.9) 346 (25.6) 367 (31.8)  
≥ 30.0 2468 (61.4) 808 (64.9) 642 (58.3)  
Number of comorbidities¶     <0.001
0 1216 (30.0) 517 (41.5) 551 (44.5)  
1 1493 (35.6) 433 (31.1) 406 (35.5)  
2-3 1273 (27.6) 318 (23.0) 205 (17.4)  
≥ 4 307 (6.8) 69 (4.4) 34 (2.5)  
Married 2111 (61.1) 392 (41.0) 548 (57.1) <0.001
Seen/talked to eye doctor (past 12 months)# 2441 (57.1) 662 (48.8) 496 (41.3) <0.001
Seen/talked to foot doctor (past 12 months)** 687 (16.5) 281 (18.9) 183 (13.5) 0.02
BP check by health profession (past 12 months)†† 4116 (97.6) 1271 (96.3) 1060 (90.4) <0.001
Cholesterol check by health profession (past 12 months)‡‡ 3872 (92.9) 1203 (91.9) 997 (85.6) <0.001

  1. Notes:
  2. *N=6,822 because 519 out of 7,341 participants have race/ethnicity data missing. Countsare not weighted, but percentages by race/ethnicity are weighted.
  3. † 271 participants missing data on insurance coverage
  4. ‡ 4 participants missing data on health status
  5. § 3 participants missing hypertension status information
  6. || 319 participants missing data on body mass index (BMI)
  7. ¶ Number of comorbidities related to diabetes and represents count of ever told about heartdisease, angina, cancer, high cholesterol, or kidney disease
  8. # 82 participants missing data on having a visit to an eye doctor in the past 12 months
  9. ** 73 participants missing data on having a visit to a foot doctor in the past 12 months
  10. †† 124 participants missing data on having blood pressure check by a health professional inthe past 12 months
  11. ‡‡ 183 participants missing data on having cholesterol check by a health professional in thepast 12 months

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