The number of Australians living with diabetes almost tripled from 460,000 in 2000 to 1.3 million in 2020, according to Diabetes: Australian facts from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
Around 63,900 people in Australia are diagnosed with diabetes each year, an average of 175 diagnoses a day. This includes type 1, type 2, and other types of diabetes, but excludes gestational diabetes.
Diabetes is a chronic condition marked by high levels of glucose in the blood. It is caused either by the inability to produce insulin (a hormone made by the pancreas to keep blood glucose levels in range) or by the body not being able to use insulin effectively, or both.
For the first time, linked National Diabetes Services Scheme and Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Group state-based registry data has been used to show the sheer impact of diabetes on the Australian population by capturing a clear time series over two decades, from 2000 to 2020.
The report primarily covers type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes, AIHW spokesman Richard Juckes said. Overall, the number of people living with diabetes almost tripled between 2000 and 2020 from 460,000 to 1.3 million, representing 2.4 per cent to 4.3 per cent of the population (age-standardised). Numbers have stabilised in the last decade; however, one in 20 Australians were living with the condition in 2020.
Type 2 diabetes comprises more than 90 per cent of diabetes cases in Australia. More than 48,000 people were diagnosed and 1.2 million (4.5 per cent) Australians were living with the condition in 2020.
“Diabetes increases the risk of health complications, including heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, and lower limb amputation,” Mr Juckes said. “It is also frequently associated with other chronic health conditions.”
In 2020, diabetes was the underlying cause of death in around 5,100 deaths (29 per cent of diabetes deaths). In a further 12,300 deaths (71 per cent of diabetes deaths), diabetes itself did not lead directly to death, but was one of the complications of other diseases, such as cancer, coronary heart disease, and stroke.
Diabetes is one of many conditions correlated with greater health consequences for people with COVID-19. Of the 4,700 hospitalisations involving a COVID-19 diagnosis in 2020–21, 20 per cent of admitted patients had type 2 diabetes. Similarly, diabetes was a pre-existing condition in 20 per cent of the 3,600 deaths due to COVID-19 between January 2020 and March 2022.
“The prevalence of diabetes varies depending on where people live,” Mr Juckes said. “After adjusting for age, Australians living in Remote and Very remote areas were 1.3 times more likely to be living with diabetes and 1.8 times more likely to die with diabetes compared to those living in major cities.”
An estimated $3.0 billion of health system expenditure was attributed to diabetes in 2018–19, representing 2.3 per cent of total disease expenditure in Australia.
Today’s report includes real life case studies based on interviews. While these personal accounts do not necessarily represent the circumstances of others and do not contain medical advice, they offer valuable insights into the diversity of people’s experiences with diabetes.
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