--- title: Over 1.3 Billion People to Have Diabetes by 2050, Researchers Say description: The vast majority of patients will have type 2 diabetes—the form of the disease that’s often linked to being overweight—according to a new study. canonical: https://time.com/6289524/diabetes-worldwide-prediction-2050/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-06-23T01:45:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:51:09.081Z article:section: Health og:title: More Than 1.3 Billion People Will Have Diabetes by 2050, Study Finds og:description: The vast majority of patients will have type 2 diabetes—the form of the disease that’s often linked to being overweight—according to a new study. og:url: https://time.com/6289524/diabetes-worldwide-prediction-2050/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b049587c62c5052/698a3e1d47ca380d173bae2e/diabetes-blood-sugar-test.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: World Diabetes Day 2021 in Bangladesh og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: More Than 1.3 Billion People Will Have Diabetes by 2050, Study Finds twitter:description: The vast majority of patients will have type 2 diabetes—the form of the disease that’s often linked to being overweight—according to a new study. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b049587c62c5052/698a3e1d47ca380d173bae2e/diabetes-blood-sugar-test.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # More Than 1.3 Billion People Worldwide Predicted to Have Diabetes by 2050 > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: TIME100 Most Influential Companies: Novo Nordisk [Watch (HLS stream): TIME100 Most Influential Companies: Novo Nordisk](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Kd5o2D9q.m3u8) (3:25)  _Published 2023-06-21. Find out why Novo Nordisk was selected for the list_ by [Matthew Griffin / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Matthew Griffin / Bloomberg Contributor Jun 23, 2023 1:45 AM UTC  A glucose test at Bangladesh’s Sylhet Diabetic Hospital on World Diabetes Day 2021. A glucose test at Bangladesh’s Sylhet Diabetic Hospital on World Diabetes Day 2021. Majority World/Universal Images Group/Getty Images by [Matthew Griffin / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Matthew Griffin / Bloomberg Contributor Jun 23, 2023 1:45 AM UTC Global aging and rising body weight will more than double the number of people with diabetes by 2050, researchers predicted, putting millions more people at risk of a variety of dangerous disorders. More than 1.3 billion people worldwide will have diabetes at the half-century mark, up from 529 million in 2021, according to estimates released Thursday by the Lancet medical journal. The vast majority of patients will have type 2 diabetes, the form of the disease that’s often linked to being overweight. A loss of the body’s ability to control blood sugar levels, diabetes affects one in 10 adults globally and caused 6.7 million deaths in 2021, the [International Diabetes Federation](https://idf.org/about-diabetes/facts-figures/) estimates. The disease has unequal impacts, with fewer than 10% of people affected in low and middle-income countries receiving proper care, the Lancet researchers note. “If we don’t do anything,” said [Kanyin Liane Ong](https://www.healthdata.org/about/liane-ong), a researcher at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and the lead author of the study, “it will cause a huge burden.” Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of the disease, accounting for about 96% of cases. It occurs when the body’s cells stop responding properly to insulin, which can lead to chronic high blood-sugar levels that leave patients vulnerable to heart, kidney, eye and nerve damage. Although preventable in many cases, usually with weight loss, and treatable with a variety of effective drugs, rates of the disease remain stubbornly high. --- ### More from TIME --- **Read More:** [_People With Diabetes Are More Vulnerable to Heart Disease. How to Reduce the Risk_](https://time.com/6199082/diabetes-heart-disease-reducing-risk/) Effective weight-loss programs have proven hard to implement at large scale, and many health-care systems are not prepared to intervene in diabetes early, the researchers note. And while drugs such as those in the GLP-1 class made by Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co. have shown promising weight-loss results, costs put them out of reach for many patients globally, the authors said, and they haven’t been used widely enough yet to determine whether they can turn the tide. Addressing racism and economic inequality will be important for controlling diabetes, a group of researchers from the US, Africa, India and Australia, wrote in a separate article in the same journal. People in low- and middle-income countries are more likely to suffer from the disease and its impacts, as are minority groups. There isn’t one perfect solution, Ong said. “Diabetes will always exist, and I think it is about managing and monitoring and identifying it early on,” she said. ## Transcript Most would say it's impossible but we don't we don't listen to much of that. We just keep keep pushing the boundaries of science to really help patients live as close to a normal life. A cheap one, except this and we took that into research and work on refining, the deal one mechanism that led to the first launch of a daily injectable products from the owner and during the clinical development and also testing it out in any way. We saw that it had this side effect that people that, that the enemy and patience lost weight. And 80% of those who live with type 2, diabetes, lose weight, very attractive, added benefit. Earlier, I need a new coach, will rain, and the cotton, the best protection. That was really the key prescription drivers. And then in parallel, with developed this indication where we Hiatt have a higher dose of motion and windows clinical data were announced, we could show as a 15% weight loss and the interstate of patients getting to Frederickson weight loss. This was really a game changer. If this mechanism in teeth does help people living with obesity and the fact that we are the worst thing that music company and obesity is leading cause of type 2 diabetes. If put in a way, be sure to ring tattoo diabetes. More than 100 million Americans living with visiting so more than 40% of the population. So it is a real issue getting call Quinn possible in clarifying, misunderstandings about the two different products when media make strong, weapons station off of the different product, will try to contact and educate, make sure that products are described in the right way. Obviously faced with the reality that it's best imitation for what we can do to what happens on on social media Trinity of serving in the millions of patients and having a huge impact on the in the picture. But I was making Health Care Systems more resilient so we invest in all weekend in building the questions to to support the development. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6289524/diabetes-worldwide-prediction-2050/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6289524/diabetes-worldwide-prediction-2050/"},"headline":"More Than 1.3 Billion People Worldwide Predicted to Have Diabetes by 2050","datePublished":"2023-06-23T01:45:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:51:09.081Z","description":"The vast majority of patients will have type 2 diabetes—the form of the disease that’s often linked to being overweight—according to a new study.","url":"https://time.com/6289524/diabetes-worldwide-prediction-2050/","keywords":["Disease","wire","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b049587c62c5052/698a3e1d47ca380d173bae2e/diabetes-blood-sugar-test.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matthew Griffin / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b049587c62c5052/698a3e1d47ca380d173bae2e/diabetes-blood-sugar-test.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"World Diabetes Day 2021 in Bangladesh","caption":"Free random blood sugar (RBS) checking campaign on the occasion of observing World Diabetes Day 2021 at the Sylhet Diabetic Hospital premises. 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