Diabetes cases in the UK reach 3.7 million with another 12.3 million at risk
Ninety percent of cases are Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to lifestyle factors such as obesity.
Tuesday 27 February 2018 03:03, UK
Diabetes UK says the number of people living with the disease has doubled in the last 20 years.
The charity says it has become the "fastest growing health crisis of our time".
The number of people diagnosed with the condition across the UK has reached almost 3.7 million - an increase of 1.9 million since 1998.
A further 12.3 million people are at an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, according to the charity's analysis.
Meanwhile, the number of people diagnosed with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes has increased by almost 100,000 since last year - from 3,590,501 to 3,689,509.
The charity found Bradford has the UK's highest prevalence of diabetes, with one in 10 people (10.4%) in the West Yorkshire city being diagnosed with the condition.
The lowest is in Richmond, west London, where just 3.6% of people are living with a diagnosis.
The national average is 6.6%.
Diabetes UK also estimates that there are nearly one million diabetic people who don't know it.
Almost nine in ten cases of diabetes are Type 2, which is linked to lifestyle factors such as obesity.
"Diabetes is the fastest growing health crisis of our time; and the fact that diagnoses have doubled in just 20 years should give all of us serious pause for thought," says Diabetes UK chief executive Chris Askew.
"Both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are serious conditions that can lead to devastating complications such as amputation, blindness, kidney disease, stroke and heart disease if people don't receive a timely diagnosis and begin receiving the right care."
The charity is calling on the Government to " recognise the seriousness" of the problem and introduce stricter restrictions on junk food advertising to children and supermarket price promotions for unhealthy foods.