Diabetes has quadrupled in adults since 1980. Obesity has risen in both men and women. Millions of children are still stunted, and the number of people who go hungry rose again after 2015. This visualizer puts those trends side by side. Click a condition on the left to see its sourced figures from 1980 to 2020, a straight-line projection to 2050, and a panel of facts.
Disease trends, 1980 to 2050
Adults with diabetes, worldwide, 18 and over. The number roughly quadrupled between 1980 and 2014.
Adults with diabetes, world (million). Solid: sourced values. Dashed: straight-line projection to 2050.
Projections are a basic calculation (straight line through the sourced points), not a forecast.Top 4 countries, 2024
Adults with diabetes, million adults aged 20 to 79. Year-by-year country lines from 1980 are still to be added from the NCD-RisC country tables.
- China148M
- India101M
- Pakistan36M
- United States20M
Source: International Diabetes Federation, IDF Diabetes Atlas, 11th edition, 2025 (diabetesatlas.org)
The sourced numbers behind this chart
| Series | Year | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Adults with diabetes, world | 1980 | 108 million |
| Adults with diabetes, world | 2014 | 422 million |
How to read the chart
The solid lines join figures from named sources. We plot only the years those sources report, so there are gaps where no figure was published. The dashed lines are a basic projection: a straight line through the reported figures, carried to 2050. It shows the direction the numbers were already moving. It is not a forecast, and it does not allow for new treatment, policy or shocks such as a pandemic.
Diabetes: the largest rise
Worldwide, the number of adults with diabetes rose from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014, according to a pooled analysis of 751 population studies by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration. Age-standardised prevalence rose from 4.3% to 9.0% in men and from 5.0% to 7.9% in women. In 2014 half of all adults with diabetes lived in five countries: China, India, the United States, Brazil and Indonesia.
The International Diabetes Federation's 2025 edition counts 589 million adults aged 20 to 79 with diabetes, about one in nine. The four countries with the most adults with diabetes in 2024 were China (148 million), India (101 million), Pakistan (36 million) and the United States (20 million). The chart shows that country comparison. Year-by-year country lines from 1980 are still being added, because the country tables need to be checked first.
Obesity: rising in men and women
Age-standardised obesity among adults rose from 3.2% of men and 6.4% of women in 1975 to 10.8% and 14.9% in 2014. In 2016, about 50 million girls and 74 million boys aged 5 to 19 were obese. Rates were about 20% or more in several Pacific island nations, the Middle East and North Africa, the Caribbean and the United States. Obesity raises the risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, which is why the two trends are shown together.
Child malnutrition: fewer stunted, more overweight
Among children under 5, stunting (too short for their age) fell from about 253 million in 1990 to 165 million in 2011 and 149.2 million in 2020. Wasting (too thin for their height) fell from 58 million to 45.4 million over the same period, and more than half of wasted children live in Southern Asia. Overweight rose from 28 million to 43 million by 2011 before easing to 38.9 million in 2020.
The pattern is a double burden. Many countries have fewer children who are short or underweight, but more who are overweight.
Hunger: progress that stalled
The number of undernourished people, meaning those whose food does not meet their energy needs, fell from 819 million in 2000 to 2002 to 614 million in 2014 to 2016. It then rose to 684 million in 2018 to 2020. The share of the world's population affected went from 13.0% to 7.5% and rose again to 9.1% in 2021 to 2023.
Worried about your own blood sugar, weight or a child's growth? Dr. Triveni can help you read your numbers and plan the next steps in a virtual consultation.
Book a consultationWhat is still missing
Country-by-country history from 1980 for diabetes, and figures for hypertension and heart disease, are not in this version. We will add them once the country tables have been checked against the original publications. Other articles could map these figures by country; that is a planned next step.
Sources
NCD Risk Factor Collaboration. Worldwide trends in diabetes since 1980: a pooled analysis of 751 population-based studies with 4.4 million participants. The Lancet, 2016. NCD Risk Factor Collaboration. Worldwide trends in body-mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from 1975 to 2016. The Lancet, 2017. International Diabetes Federation. IDF Diabetes Atlas, 11th edition, 2025. UNICEF, WHO and World Bank Group. Joint child malnutrition estimates: levels and trends, 2020 and 2021 editions. FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, prevalence of undernourishment, 2021 and 2024 editions.
