Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease marked by high blood glucose, caused by insufficient insulin production or reduced response to insulin. People with diabetes are at a greater risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke. They also have elevated risks for vision loss, foot and leg amputation due to damage to nerves and blood vessels, and renal failure requiring dialysis or transplantation. Globally, an estimated 589 million adults were living with diabetes in 2022, compared to 415 million in 2014 (IDF, 2025[1]). This estimate is much lower than the WHO/NCD-RisC estimate of 828 million people aged 18 years or older with diabetes in 2022 (Zhou et al., 2024[2]). However, these disparities may reflect variations in diagnostic methods and modelling approaches. Nevertheless, the global prevalence of diabetes has increased since 2014, and is projected to rise to 852.5 million by 2050 (IDF, 2025[1]). In LAC, more than 40 million adults (aged 20 years and over) live with diabetes and about half of them are undiagnosed and unaware of developing long-term complications.
Across all 33 LAC countries, the average prevalence of diabetes is 16.7% among men and 18.1% among women (Figure 3.31). The largest differences were observed in Caribbean countries such as Dominica and Barbados where women were 60.4% and 34.8% more likely to have diabetes, respectively. In contrast, in Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Uruguay diabetes was more prevalent among men, following the same trend observed in OECD countries. Evidence suggests that the Caribbean region has among the highest diabetes prevalence in LAC, reflecting both biological and social determinants of health, including higher levels of obesity and limited access to prevention services (Guariguata et al., 2018[3]).
The average diabetes prevalence percentage in LAC33 was 11% in 2024, considerably higher than the OECD prevalence of 8% (Figure 3.31). Within the LAC region, diabetes prevalence was the highest in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Guyana, with diabetes prevalence above 16%, and the lowest in Bolivia, Ecuador and Honduras, at or below 5%. Overall, diabetes prevalence in LAC has increased by 11.74% since 2011, remaining below the 16.7% increase observed in OECD countries. The Dominican Republic has experienced the largest relative increase, at 117.28%, while prevalence in Bolivia has declined by approximately 48.5% over the 2011‑2024 period.
Diabetes prevalence is highly correlated with diabetes-attributable mortality (Figure 3.32). However, countries such as Barbados and Dominica have diabetes-attributed mortality higher than 20% despite showing prevalence values lower than 14%. In contrast, the Dominican Republic has the highest prevalence of diabetes among LAC countries but attributable mortality its much lower than would be expected. This suggests that additional factors, such as modifiable risk behaviours (e.g. alcohol and tobacco use) and access to timely diagnosis, treatment, and glycaemic control may play a critical role in determining diabetes-related mortality beyond prevalence alone.
Policy efforts should address both diabetes prevalence and mortality by strengthening integrated NCD prevention and management, especially in primary care. Prevalence can be reduced through action on modifiable risk factors, including unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, tobacco and alcohol use, supported by population-level measures such as health taxes, nutrition labelling and screening for hypertension and other diabetes risks (WHO, 2024[4]). Most LAC countries have diabetes programmes in place, providing an important basis for stronger prevention and control.
