Key Takeaways
Nearly half of people with diabetes don’t know they have it
An estimated 44% of diabetics worldwide aren’t aware of their condition.
Only 1 in 5 diabetics has their condition properly managed
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 10, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Nearly half of people with diabetes around the world are unaware of their condition, according to a new study.
Globally, an estimated 44% of people 15 and older with diabetes didn’t know they had the life-threatening disease, researchers reported Sept. 8 in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
“By 2050, 1.3 billion people are expected to be living with diabetes, and if nearly half don’t know they have a serious and potentially deadly health condition, it could easily become a silent epidemic,” lead investigator Lauryn Stafford said in a news release. She’s a researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Worse, fewer than half of people who know they’re diabetic have their blood sugar levels under control, researchers found.
About 91% of people diagnosed with diabetes are on some form of medication, but only 42% had their blood sugar properly managed, results showed.
Overall, this means only 21% of all people with diabetes have their blood sugar under control and are minimizing potential health problems, researchers said.
“Diabetes is a growing threat to population health that requires timely detection, treatment and adequate management of glycemic concentrations to reduce the risk of complications and premature death,” researchers wrote.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from the 2023 Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study, which estimated that 561 million people worldwide were living with diabetes.
They pooled this data with other studies evaluating the care of diabetes around the world, to come up with estimates of how well the disease is being detected and treated.
“Our estimates span every region of the world, including 204 countries and territories,” researchers wrote.
The team found substantial differences in diagnosis and treatment among nations, with major disparities in low- and middle-income countries, results showed.
The highest rates of diagnoses were in North America, where about 83% of people with the condition have been appropriately identified. Southern Latin America (80%) and western Europe (78%) also had high rates of diagnosis, the paper said.
By comparison, only 16% of people with diabetes in central sub-Saharan Africa have been diagnosed.
In 2022, the World Health Organization set a target to have 80% of all people with diabetes clinically diagnosed by 2030, researchers noted.
The results underscore the urgent need for investment in diabetes screening programs as well as access to diabetes drugs and blood sugar monitors, researchers said.
“Country health systems must continue to prioritize efforts to build greater diagnostic capacity and improve health-care service delivery to reduce complications among those living with diabetes,” the team concluded.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has more about diabetes testing.
SOURCES: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, news release, Sept. 8, 2025; The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Sept. 8, 2025
What This Means For You
People concerned that they have diabetes should ask their doctor for a blood sugar test.
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