Official Statistics

Diabetes profile: statistical commentary, March 2025

Published 4 March 2025

Applies to England

The diabetes profile has been updated with new data for existing indicators for care process, treatment targets and structured education for the 15 month period ending March 2024 as reported by the National Diabetes Audit (NDA).

In addition, new indicators have been added to the profile including:

• estimates of total (diagnosed and undiagnosed) type 2 diabetes prevalence
• GP recorded prevalence for type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes
• people with diabetes that received retinal screening checks and all 9 care processes
• people with diabetes prescribed statins for combined prevention of cardiovascular disease

Forty indicators have been added or updated within the profile. Fifty indicators have been removed from the profile. A full list of removed indicators is available from the diabetes profile in Fingertips.

Introduction

The diabetes profile offers a wide range of local, regional and national information on the pathway of care and the outcomes for diabetes, including:

• type 2 diabetes risk factors
• diabetes prevalence
• primary care and management of diabetes
• structured education
• diabetes related complications and mortality

By presenting disease outcomes and risk factors, these tools provide a summary of the burden of diabetes to:

• bring together data on the pathway of healthcare in one tool to enable users to access and utilise the intelligence more easily
• provide data for health professionals and local public health colleagues when assessing the impact of the disease on their local population and making decisions about services
• support users to identify and address inequalities in care between their areas and identify priority areas for further review

The March 2025 update to the profile presents the core NDA data for the 15 month period ending March 2024 for existing and new indicators. The NDA is a national clinical audit of primary care data, which measures the effectiveness of diabetes healthcare against National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) clinical guidelines and quality standards. NICE recommends 9 care processes for diabetes and 3 key treatment targets for diabetes. Data for care processes and treatment targets are reported here from the NDA. For the reported period, 98.2% of GP practices in England participated in the audit.

Main findings

This update shows:

• GP recorded type 2 diabetes prevalence in adults was 7.0% for those aged 17 and over in England at March 2024, which was an increase from 6.8% at March 2023
• total diagnosed and undiagnosed type 2 diabetes prevalence in England was estimated at 7.8% for those aged 16 and over in 2021
• the percentage of people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes receiving all 9 care processes increased in the 15 month period ending March 2024, and was significantly higher than the 15 month period ending March 2020
• there was a significant increase in the percentage of people with type 1 diabetes achieving all 3 treatment targets between the 15 month period ending March 2023 and the 15 month period ending March 2024 - however, for people with type 2 diabetes there was a significant decrease
• between 2021 and 2022, the percentage of people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes attending structured education courses increased 27% - however, this is still significantly lower than 2019

Detailed findings

Estimated prevalence of diagnosed and undiagnosed type 2 diabetes

Figure 1 shows the estimated proportion of people with type 2 diabetes in England and regions in 2021. It was estimated that, in 2021, there were a total of 3.6 million people aged 16 and over in England with type 2 diabetes, with a prevalence of 7.8%. There is substantial variation between different parts of the country. The West Midlands region had the highest estimated prevalence (8.6%) with the South East region the lowest (7.0%).

Leicester was the upper tier local authority with the highest estimated type 2 diabetes prevalence (11.1%). This was 5.4 percentage points higher than Wokingham, the authority with the lowest estimated prevalence (5.7%) in 2021.

NHS Black Country was the integrated care board (ICB) with the highest estimated type 2 diabetes prevalence (9.7%) in 2021. NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB had the lowest estimated prevalence (6.3%).

Details about the methodology used is available in the accompanying technical document  from Fingertips.

Figure 1: estimated total diagnosed and undiagnosed type 2 diabetes prevalence (and 95% confidence intervals), people aged 16 and over, England regions, 2021

The Fingertips profile shows the:

• data for local authorities as a map
• data for local authorities as a chart

Care processes

Figure 2 shows that in the 15 months ending March 2024, the percentage of people with type 1 diabetes in England receiving 9 care processes increased to 42.2% from 37.0% in the previous period. This is also the highest reported by the NDA since it was first reported in the 15 months ending March 2020 (37.4%).  For people with type 2 diabetes, the percentage increased to 54.3% from 48.9% in the previous period. This is also the highest reported by the NDA since it was first reported in the 15 months ending March 2020 (52.2%). The inequality in receiving care processes continues to grow between people with type 1 diabetes and people with type 2 and other diabetes.

The percentage of people with diabetes receiving every individual care process increased in the 15 months ending March 2024 compared with the previous period. However, the percentage of people with type 1 diabetes receiving a blood pressure check, foot check or having smoking status recorded were still below the level in the 15 months ending March 2020. The percentage of people with type 2 and other diabetes receiving a blood pressure check, cholesterol check, foot check or retinal screening was still below the level in the 15 months ending March 2020.

The variation in the percentage of people with diabetes receiving 9 care processes among ICBs in England reduced in the 15 months ending March 2024 compared with the previous period. During this latest period, the percentage of people receiving all 9 care processes ranged from 30.2% to 60.4% of people with type 1 diabetes and 38.4% to 70.6% of people with type 2 and other diabetes.

Figure 2: percentage of people with diabetes that received all 9 care processes, England, 15 months ending March 2020 to the 15 months ending March 2024

Figures 3 and 4 show the variation in the percentage of people with diabetes receiving different care processes across ICBs. This shows that in the 15 months ending March 2024, the largest variation was found for urinary albumin test, foot check and retinal screening compared with the other care processes.

Figure 3: percentage of people with type 1 diabetes that received care processes, ICBs in England, 15 months ending March 2024

Figure 4: percentage of people with type 2 and other diabetes that received care processes, ICBs in England, 15 months ending March 2024

Treatment targets

Figure 5 shows that the percentage of people with type 1 diabetes that achieved all 3 treatment targets increased in the 15 months ending March 2024 (24.3%) compared with the previous period (23.9%). However, for people with type 2 and other diabetes, the percentage decreased from the previous period and remained below the percentage achieving all 3 treatment targets in the 15 months ending March 2020, as shown in figure 6.

Figure 5: percentage of people with type 1 diabetes that achieved treatment targets, England, 15 months ending March 2018 to the 15 months ending March 2024

The percentage of people with type 1 diabetes that achieved all 3 treatment targets ranged from 18.9% to 31.2% among ICBs in the 15 months ending March 2024. For people with type 2 and other diabetes, this ranged from 31.6% to 41.3%.

For people with type 1 diabetes, the percentage achieving the recommended glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) target (of less than or equal to 58 mmol/mol) and statin prescription  continued to increase in the 15 months ending March 2024. The HbA1c target increased by 8.2 percentage points over the same period. The statin prescription target increased by 4.9 percentage points from the 15 months ending March 2019. By contrast, the percentage achieving the recommended blood pressure target (of less than or equal to 140/80) decreased by 6.2 percentage points between the 15 months ending March 2020 to the 15 months ending March 2024.

For people with type 2 diabetes, the percentage achieving the HbA1c target did not change from the previous period. By contrast, those receiving statin prescription increased by 0.9 percentage points and those achieving the blood pressure target decreased by 3.6 percentage points.

Figure 6: percentage of people with type 2 and other diabetes that achieved treatment targets, England, 15 months ending March 2018 to the 15 months ending March 2024

Further information

Further details about the profile methodology are available within the definitions section of the online version of the diabetes profile in Fingertips.

For queries relating to this document, please contact: ncvin-ohid@dhsc.gov.uk.