Diabetes prevalence among adults in Europe in 2019, by country

Germany had the highest prevalence of diabetes in Europe among their adult population with 15.3 percent living with diabetes in 2019, Portugal followed with the second highest share at 14.2 percent. On the other hand, Ireland was the country with the lowest prevalence of diabetes in Europe at 4.4 percent.

Diabetes situation in Germany

As well as having the highest prevalence of diabetes in Europe in 2019, Germany also had the highest number of diabetes related deaths at over 50 thousand in this year. This was much higher than both France and Poland which each had around 18.5 thousand deaths as a result of diabetes in 2019. Furthermore, Germany has around 33 thousand children living with type 1 diabetes.

Diabetes risk factors in Europe

One of the major contributing factors to type 2 diabetes is being overweight or obese. In 2016, over 9 percent of adolescents in the UK were classed as obese, with several other European countries having obesity rates among teenagers of over five percent. As is the case in many developed countries around the world, the obesity rate among adolescents in the UK and Germany has increased significantly over the last few decades.