India led the world in diabetes cases in 2022, with over 212 million people affected and a staggering 62% left untreated, highlighting a critical public health challenge. In 2022, India emerged as the diabetes capital of the world, housing over a quarter of the global diabetic population. This alarming revelation, published in The Lancet by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), paints a concerning picture of the nation’s battle against this chronic illness.
With 212 million diabetics, nearly 62% remained untreated, underscoring a significant gap in awareness, access, and intervention. Here’s a closer look at the findings, their implications, and the road ahead for India. Diabetes in India: Sobering Numbers 212 Million Diabetics: India accounted for 23.
7% of its population being diabetic in 2022. This figure is more than double the diabetes rate in 1990. Treatment Gaps: Approximately 133 million diabetics in India were not receiving treatment, leading the world in untreated cases.
Pre-diabetes Prevalence: Nearly 15.3% of the population was pre-diabetic, signaling a looming health crisis. In stark contrast, China, with a comparable population size, reported 148 million diabetics, with around 78 million untreated cases—much fewer than India.
A Global Surge in Diabetes Worldwide, the number of people living with diabetes surpassed 828 million in 2022, a staggering fourfold increase since 1990. The rise in untreated cases—445.