Diabetes in Canada: An interactive report on key statistics: Overview

On this page

• Key highlights
• About diabetes
• Prediabetes
• Undiagnosed diabetes
• Diabetes in Canada

Key highlights

About diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic condition that affects people of all ages. It develops when the body does not produce or effectively use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood glucose levels in the body.

Diabetes can cause chronic hyperglycemia (high blood glucose). This can lead to serious complications that may affect the whole body such as:

• heart disease
• eye and kidney damage
• lower limb amputation
• adverse mental health outcomes

Some diabetes treatments can lead to hypoglycemia (low blood glucose).

There are three main types of diabetes^{Footnote 1}: type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune process where the body attacks its own cells. The immune system destroys the islet beta cells in the pancreas that make insulin. This causes insulin production to stop.

Type 1 diabetes can occur at any age but is more often diagnosed early in life. About 3 out of 4 people with type 1 were diagnosed before age 20^{footnote ¤}. Known risk factors include genetic predisposition and certain environmental factors. About 5 to 10%^{Footnote 2} of people living with diabetes have type 1.

Type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body cannot use insulin properly or when the pancreas no longer makes enough insulin.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common type. It's approximately 90 to 95%^{Footnote 2} of all diabetes cases. Diagnoses usually occur after the age of 40, with over 80% of individuals with type 2 being diagnosed after that age^{footnote ¤}. However, the condition is now becoming more common among younger individuals, due among other things, to the prevalence of obesity, which remains high in this population despite some stabilization in recent years^{Footnote 3Footnote 4Footnote 5}.

Gestational diabetes

Gestational diabetes occurs during pregnancy and generally goes away after delivery. It occurs in around 11% of hospital deliveries^{Footnote 6}.

Prediabetes

Prediabetes happens when blood glucose levels are high but lower than levels required for type 2 diabetes diagnosis. Although not all people living with prediabetes will develop type 2 diabetes, many will.

In a European study, among adults aged 45 years and older with prediabetes, the lifetime risk of progression to type 2 diabetes was 74.0%^{Footnote 7}. Prediabetes highlights the importance of adopting lifestyle changes to prevent or delay progression to type 2 diabetes.

In Canada, between 2007 and 2019, about 6.3% of adults aged 20 to 79 years had prediabetes^{footnote Ф}.

Note: Prediabetes estimates may vary depending on the threshold and measures used. In this report, the prediabetes estimate was calculated with measured values of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C or A1C) in the blood using data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) applying the A1C thresholds for prediabetes defined in Diabetes Canada's Clinical Practice Guidelines. Higher values of A1C were observed between 2007 and 2011 compared to later CHMS cycles due to the laboratory method used. Although Statistics Canada deemed the results acceptable for use, they suggest that users should use caution when analyzing and interpreting A1C data from 2007 to 2011, particularly for estimates of prediabetes.

Undiagnosed diabetes

Diabetes can sometimes go unnoticed and be undiagnosed. Diagnosis is essential to start treatment and manage blood glucose levels.

Between 2007 and 2019, among adults aged 20 to 79 years:

• 1.9% had undiagnosed diabetes^{footnote ¥} (2.3% males, 1.5% females)
• 22.5% who met the diagnosis criteria for diabetes were not aware of their condition

Diabetes in Canada

The map shows the age-standardized prevalence and incidence of diagnosed diabetes^{footnote †footnote *} among individuals aged one year and older in each province and territory.

Age-standardized prevalence (%) incidence (per 100,000) of diabetes for both sexes males females in 2023–2024 2022–2023 2021–2022 2020–2021 2019–2020 2018–2019 2017–2018 2016–2017 2015–2016 2014–2015 2013–2014 2012–2013 2011–2012 2010–2011 2009–2010 2008–2009 2007–2008 2006–2007 2005–2006 2004–2005 2003–2004 2002–2003 2001–2002 2000–2001

Use the dropdown above, and hover over or select map regions below to see the prevalence or incidence of diabetes in Canada.

Data source:

Figure 1: Text description

Figure 1: Notes

• The estimates are age-standardized to the 2021 Canadian population, using unrounded counts and five-year age groups, to adjust for differences in population age structure.
• The fiscal year period is denoted by a dash.
• G: Data not available