• Nearly 24 million Americans have diabetes, and about one-fourth of them don't know that they have the disease.
• By 2050, an estimated 39 million U.S. residents are expected to have diagnosed diabetes.
• American Indians, African Americans, and Hispanics are about 2 times more likely than whites to have diabetes.
• Type 2 diabetes, once believed to affect only adults, is being diagnosed increasingly among young people.
• One in three U.S. children born in 2000 could develop diabetes during their lifetime.
• Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death. Over 200,000 people die each year of diabetes-related complications.
• Diabetes is a leading cause of kidney failure, new blindness in adults, and leg and foot amputations unrelated to injury.
• Diabetes is a major cause of heart disease and stroke, which are responsible for about 65% of deaths among people with diabetes.
• Periodontal disease is more common in people with diabetes. Almost one third of people with diabetes have severe periodontal disease. Persons with poorly controlled diabetes (A1c>9%) were nearly 3 times more likely to have severe periodontitis than those without diabetes.
• About 18,000 women with preexisting diabetes deliver babies each year, and 135,000 expectant mothers learn they have gestational diabetes. Diabetes increases a woman’s risk for pregnancy complications and increases her child’s risk for obesity and diabetes later in life.
• Prevalence of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes in the United States: Age 20 or older: 10.7% of all people in this age group have diabetes.
• Age 60 years or older: 23.1% of all people in this age group have diabetes.
• An estimated 57 million Americans have a high risk for developing type 2 diabetes—a condition known as pre-diabetes. People with pre-diabetes have impaired fasting glucose (IFG), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), or both.

• Total costs (direct and indirect): $174 billion
• Direct medical costs: $116 billion
• Indirect costs: $58 billion (disability, work loss, premature death)
• People with diagnosed diabetes, have average expenditures of $11,744 per year of which $6,649 is attributed to diabetes.
• People with diagnosed diabetes, on average, have medical expenditures that are 2.3 times higher than expenditures would be in the absence of diabetes

These data are based on a study for the American Diabetes Association. (American Diabetes Association Economic Costs of Diabetes in the US in 2007, Diabetes Care, 31: 596-615, 2008.

• Regular eye exams and timely treatment could prevent up to 90% of diabetes-related blindness
• Foot care programs that include regular examinations and patient education could prevent up to 85% of diabetes-related amputations
• Treatment to better control blood pressure can reduce heart disease and stroke by 33%–50% and diabetes-related kidney failure by 33%
• Diet and exercise that achieves a 5- to 7% weight loss can reduce diabetes incidence by 58%.