The 15 Alarming Diabetes Statistics Australians Need To Know (2022).

Diabetes rates are increasing alarmingly across the world. Australia is not immune to this global epidemic.

Type 1 and type 2, both have reached all-time levels, with more than 1.7 million Australians diagnosed so far. The disease has spread so far that it is now the leading cause of hospitalisation and death in Australia!

We can’t do much to stop the rise in cases but we can become more aware of what we are at risk of. You should be familiar with 15 diabetes statistics in Australia.

Diabetes Facts and Stats Australia

1. Around 1,7 million Australians, or 6,6% of the total Australian population, are affected by diabetes. This includes both silent and undiagnosed type 2 diabetes.
2. Over 2,000,000 Australians are prediabetic and another 555,000 suffer from undiagnosed Type 2 Diabetes.
3. One in two people with Type 2 Diabetes have difficulty sleeping due to their unstable sugar levels.
4. Pre-diabetes is a condition that affects one in six Australians aged over 25.
5. In Australia, one in seven pregnant women is affected by gestational diabetes.
6. Every 5 minutes, an Australian is diagnosed with diabetes.
7. Diabetes costs Australia about 14.6 billion dollars per year.
8. Diabetes was responsible for approximately 16,700 deaths, or 10.50%, of all deaths recorded in Australia.
9. Australia has the second-highest rate of diabetic amputations in the developed world. In Australia, diabetes causes over 4,400 amputations each year.
10. With the right lifestyle modifications, almost six out of ten Australians can reverse pre-diabetes.
11. In Australia, type 2 diabetes is the sixth leading cause of mortality.
12. Australia ranks 7th out of the top 10 countries in terms of type 1 diabetes.
13. Indigenous Australians have a 4x higher risk of type 2 diabetes compared to non-Indigenous Australians.

How many Australians suffer from diabetes?

• More than 1.7 million Australians or 6.6% have diabetes.
• There are an estimated 2,000,000 Australians who are pre-diabetic. 127,000 have Type 1 diabetes and 550,000 are Type 2 diabetics.
• Every day, 280 Australians are newly diagnosed with diabetes.

Types of Diabetes

1. Type 1 diabetes accounts for at least 10% of all diabetes cases in Australia.

• About 127,000 Australians are living with diabetes type 1, which accounts for between 10% and 15% of the total diabetes rate in Australia.
• There is no cure for type 1 diabetes and it cannot be prevented or treated by lifestyle changes.
• Children are most likely to be affected – the incidence rate between 2000-2018 was 1.4 times greater for those aged 0-14 than for those aged 15-24. This number was 3.6 times higher for those aged 25+.

2. Around 87% of Australia’s diabetes rate is Type 2.

• Type 2 diabetes is caused when the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin or when the insulin produced doesn’t work effectively. It accounts for 87% of all Australian diabetics.
• Around 500,000 Australians are estimated to have type 2 diabetes that has not been diagnosed.
• With lifestyle and dietary changes, almost 60% of type 2 diabetic cases in Australia can be prevented or delayed.

3. 5% of pregnant Australian women suffer from gestational diabetes.

• Women with gestational diabetes are more likely to also be diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and hypertension.
• In 2016-17, over 40,800 women gave birth to babies in hospitals with gestational diabetes.

4. Nearly 6/10 Australians can reverse their pre-diabetes, and prevent the development of type-2 diabetes.

• Pre-diabetes occurs when blood glucose levels are above normal but not enough to diagnose type 2 diabetics. In most cases, pre-diabetes leads to type 2.
• Pre-diabetes can be reversed with lifestyle changes and weight reduction. Nearly 6/10 people will prevent type 2 diabetes from developing if they shed 7.5% of their weight.

Diabetes prevalence among adults

5. Type 2 diabetes is twice as common in obese Australian men.

• Men who are obese have a 12 per cent chance of developing Type 2 Diabetes compared to those who are overweight (6%) or underweight/normal-weight range (5%)
• Women’s rates are slightly lower than men’s. Obese women (8%) are twice as likely to develop diabetes than women of normal weight (3%) or overweight (4%)

6. Diabetes is three times more common in the elderly than it is among those aged under 50.

• • Type 2 diabetes is more common as people age. One in six adults over 65 reports the disease, and nearly one-fifth of all those over 85 years are diagnosed.
  • The risk of diabetes is 3 times higher for people aged 65-74 than it is for those 45-54 years old. For those 55-64 years old, the rate is 1.5x as high.

• Indigenous Australians are four times more likely than non-Indigenous Australians to suffer from type 2 diabetes. This equates to approximately 7.9% or 64,100 Indigenous Australians.
• Aboriginal women are twice as likely to have gestational type 2 diabetes, and Aboriginal children are 8 times more likely than non-Indigenous children to have the disease.
• Aboriginal Australians are six times as likely to die of diabetes than non-Indigenous Australians.

11. Type 1 and 2 diabetes is increasing in children.

• Around 11,000 Australian teenagers and children have diabetes. The majority of them are type 1. However, type 2 is increasing in young people and children – in Australia, there are nearly 1,000 children and adolescents aged 20 and under with type 2.
• In 2017, approximately 6,500 children aged between 0-14 years had type 1 diabetes, which is a rate of 141 for every 100,000 children.
• Type 2 diabetes can be difficult to track in children because it is easily misdiagnosed or misreported.

Diabetes and Health

12. In Australia, type 2 diabetes is the sixth leading cause of mortality.

• The 6th most common cause of death in Australia is type 2 diabetes.
• Over 1000 diabetics died in 2005 as a result of foot wounds and lower leg injuries. This accounted for approximately 8% of all deaths related to diabetes.
• Every five minutes, someone is diagnosed as diabetic. That’s over 300 people a day. 65-80% will die from coronary heart disease.

13. Diabetes complications are hospitalised in Australia every year.

• There are around 10,000 admissions to hospitals in Australia each year for diabetic foot ulcers. This is a side effect of the disease, but it can be prevented.
• In the period 2017-2018, hospitalisations for diabetes complications that could have been prevented increased by 4%.
• In just one year, diabetes complications led to 76.800 hospital days.

14. Australia is the second-highest developed country in terms of diabetic amputation rates.

• Diabetes is responsible for more than 4,400 amputations in Australia every year. This is the second-highest rate of amputations in the developed world.
• In 2011, 1.7% of people with diabetes were estimated to have had their lower limbs amputated – this is approximately 12,300 people!

15. Diabetes costs Australia about $14.6 billion per annum.

• Amputations due to diabetes cost an average of $23,555. Add that up with the 4,400 diabetic amputations that occur each year and you get $103 million.
• The Australian healthcare system alone spends $1.6 billion per year on diabetic foot disease.
• Type 1 diabetics pay an average of $4,669 annually. However, if you have micro- or macrovascular complications, your costs can rise to as much as $16,698.

Conclusion

Australia’s diabetes statistics are not good, but they still appear to be lower than those of other Western Pacific nations. It’s not possible to prevent type 1 diabetes, but Aussies should be more aware of their lifestyle if they wish to avoid it. For those who have already been diagnosed with diabetes, it is important to take extra care to prevent hospitalisations and possible amputation risks.