US Diabetes Rate by State: A Map of a Growing Epidemic

Diabetes has become one of America's most common chronic diseases, affecting more than one in ten adults — and that's only the diagnosed cases. But the burden is far from even: in the lowest-rate states around 7% of adults have diabetes, while in the hardest-hit states it's well over 15%. This guide maps diagnosed adult diabetes across the states, ranks them, and explains why the disease clusters where it does.

How common is diabetes in the U.S.?

More than one in ten American adults has been diagnosed with diabetes, the overwhelming majority of it type 2 — and millions more are undiagnosed or prediabetic. The map above shows diagnosed adult diabetes by state, based on the CDC's large health survey. The state-to-state range is striking: the rate in the hardest-hit states is more than double that of the lowest, a gap that tracks closely with obesity, age, income, and access to care.

Which states have the highest diabetes rates?

The highest rates form a clear cluster across the Deep South and Appalachia — West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, and their neighbors — where rates climb well above 15%. The lowest are in Colorado and other Western and Northeastern states, closer to 7–9%. This is the same geography seen in obesity and other chronic-disease maps, because the underlying risk factors travel together.

Why diabetes clusters in the South

The Southern concentration reflects the same forces that drive the obesity map: higher rates of overweight and obesity, lower incomes, less access to preventive care and healthy food, and an older population in some areas. Type 2 diabetes is strongly linked to weight, diet, and physical activity, so regions with higher obesity tend to have higher diabetes — and the two reinforce each other. These are population patterns shaped by economics and environment, not individual choices alone.

Type 1 vs. type 2 diabetes

Nearly all of the variation on this map is type 2 diabetes, which develops over time and is closely tied to weight, diet, and activity — and is largely preventable or manageable through lifestyle and medication. Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune condition usually diagnosed in childhood, makes up a much smaller share and isn't lifestyle-related. When state rates rise or fall, it's the type 2 trend driving it, which is why public-health efforts focus on the risk factors behind it.