Total Prevalence of Diabetes in the United States, All Ages, 2005

• Total: 20.8 million people—7 percent of the population—have diabetes.
• Diagnosed: 14.6 million people
• Undiagnosed: 6.2 million people
  

Prevalence of Diagnosed Diabetes in People Aged 20 Years or Younger, United States, 2005

• About 176,500 people aged 20 years or younger have diabetes. This group represents 0.22 percent of all people in this age group.
• About one in every 400 to 600 children and adolescents has type 1 diabetes.
• Although type 2 diabetes can occur among youth, the nationally representative data that would be needed to monitor diabetes trends in youth by type are not available. Clinically based reports and regional studies suggest that type 2 diabetes, although still rare, is being diagnosed more frequently in children and adolescents, particularly in American Indians, African Americans, and Hispanic/Latino Americans.

Total Prevalence of Diabetes Among People Aged 20 Years or Older, United States, 2005

• Age 20 years or older: 20.6 million; 9.6 percent of all people in this age group have diabetes.
• Age 60 years or older: 10.3 million; 20.9 percent of all people in this age group have diabetes.
• Men: 10.9 million; 10.5 percent of all men aged 20 years or older have diabetes.
• Women: 9.7 million; 8.8 percent of all women aged 20 years or older have diabetes.
  

Total Prevalence of Diabetes by Race/Ethnicity Among People Aged 20 Years or Older, United States, 2005

• Non-Hispanic whites: 13.1 million; 8.7 percent of all non-Hispanic whites aged 20 years or older have diabetes.
• Non-Hispanic blacks: 3.2 million; 13.3 percent of all non-Hispanic blacks aged 20 years or older have diabetes. After adjusting for population age differences, non-Hispanic blacks are 1.8 times as likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanic whites of similar age.
• Hispanic/Latino Americans: After adjusting for population age differences, Mexican Americans, the largest Hispanic/Latino subgroup, are 1.7 times as likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanic whites. If the prevalence of diabetes among Mexican Americans was applied to the total Hispanic/Latino population, about 2.5 million (9.5 percent) Hispanic/Latino Americans aged 20 years or older would have diabetes. Sufficient data are not available to derive estimates of the total prevalence of diabetes (both diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes) for other Hispanic/Latino groups. However, residents of Puerto Rico are 1.8 times as likely to have diagnosed diabetes as non-Hispanic whites in the United Sates.
• American Indians and Alaska Natives who receive care from the Indian Health Service (IHS): 99,500; 12.8 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives aged 20 years or older who received care from the Indian Health Service (IHS) in 2003 had diagnosed diabetes. Applying the rate of undiagnosed diabetes in the total U.S. population to the American Indians and Alaska Natives who receive care from IHS gives an estimate of 118,000 (15.1 percent) American Indians and Alaska Natives aged 20 years or older with diabetes (both diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes). After adjusting for population age differences, the total prevalence of diabetes in this group is lowest among Alaska Natives (8.1 percent) and highest among American Indians in the southern United States (26.7 percent) and in southern Arizona (27.6 percent). Taking into account population age differences, American Indians and Alaska Natives are 2.2 times as likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanic whites.
• Asian Americans and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders: The total prevalence of diabetes (both diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes) is not available for Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders. In Hawaii, however, Asians, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders aged 20 years or older are more than 2 times as likely to have diagnosed diabetes as whites after adjusting for population age differences. Similarly in California, Asians were 1.5 times as likely to have diagnosed diabetes as non-Hispanic whites. Other groups within these populations also have increased risk for diabetes.

• Diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death listed on U.S. death certificates in 2002. This ranking is based on the 73,249 death certificates in which diabetes was listed as the underlying cause of death. According to death certificate reports, diabetes contributed to a total of 224,092 deaths.
• Diabetes is likely to be underreported as a cause of death. Studies have found that only about 35 to 40 percent of decedents with diabetes have diabetes listed anywhere on the death certificate and only about 10 to15 percent had it listed as the underlying cause of death.
• Overall, the risk for death among people with diabetes is about twice that of people without diabetes of similar age.
  

• Heart disease and stroke account for about 65 percent of deaths in people with diabetes.
• Adults with diabetes have heart disease death rates about 2 to 4 times higher than adults without diabetes.
• The risk for stroke is 2 to 4 times higher among people with diabetes.
  

High blood pressure

• About 73 percent of adults with diabetes have blood pressure greater than or equal to 130/80 mm Hg or use prescription medications for hypertension.

• Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among adults aged 20 to 74 years.
• Diabetic retinopathy causes 12,000 to 24,000 new cases of blindness each year.
  

• Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, accounting for 44 percent of new cases in 2002.
• In 2002 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 44,400 people with diabetes began treatment for end-stage kidney disease.
• In 2002 in the United States and Puerto Rico,153,730 people with end-stage kidney disease due to diabetes were living on chronic dialysis or with a kidney transplant.
  

• About 60 to 70 percent of people with diabetes have mild to severe forms of nervous system damage. The results of such damage include impaired sensation or pain in the feet or hands, slowed digestion of food in the stomach, carpal tunnel syndrome, and other nerve problems.
• Almost 30 percent of people with diabetes aged 40 years or older have impaired sensation in the feet (i.e., at least one area that lacks feeling).
• Severe forms of diabetic nerve disease are a major contributing cause of lower-extremity amputations.
  

• More than 60 percent of nontraumatic lower-limb amputations occur among people with diabetes.
• In 2002, about 82,000 nontraumatic lower-limb amputations were performed in people with diabetes.
  

• Periodontal (gum) disease is more common in people with diabetes. Among young adults, those with diabetes have about twice the risk of those without diabetes.
• Almost one-third of people with diabetes have severe periodontal diseases with loss of attachment of the gums to the teeth measuring 5 millimeters or more.
  

Complications of pregnancy

• Poorly controlled diabetes before conception and during the first trimester of pregnancy can cause major birth defects in 5 to 10 percent of pregnancies and spontaneous abortions in 15 to 20 percent of pregnancies.
• Poorly controlled diabetes during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy can result in excessively large babies, posing a risk to both mother and child.
  

Other complications

• Uncontrolled diabetes often leads to biochemical imbalances that can cause acute life-threatening events, such as diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperosmolar (nonketotic) coma.
• People with diabetes are more susceptible to many other illnesses and, once they acquire these illnesses, often have worse prognoses. For example, they are more likely to die with pneumonia or influenza than people who do not have diabetes.