The number of people under 40 being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the UK has risen 39% in six years, fuelled by soaring obesity levels and cheap junk food.
Britain has one of the highest obesity rates in Europe. Two in three adults are overweight or obese and the NHS spends £6bn a year treating obesity-related ill-health. That is forecast to rise to £10bn a year by 2050.
New figures from Diabetes UK show cases of type 2 among under-40s have increased to almost 168,000 from 120,000 in 2016/17. Diagnoses are rising at a significantly faster pace than among over-40s, for whom the increase was 25% in six years.
The figures come after the Guardian revealed that ministers had been warned they were putting children and young people at risk of life-changing medical conditions, including type 2 diabetes, because they had shelved policies to tackle obesity and junk food until 2025.
Many of the measures promised in the 2020 national food strategy have been ditched, watered down or kicked into the long grass.
The chief executive of Diabetes UK, Colette Marshall, said the rise in type 2 diabetes among children and young adults was alarming and called on ministers to urgently address the crisis.
“Drastic changes to the environments we live in and the food we eat over the last 25 years are taking a toll on our health,” she said. “We are bombarded by adverts for cheaper, unhealthy food. The foods on our shelves are increasingly high in fat, salt and sugar. And rising costs are pushing a healthy diet out of reach for millions.
“These conditions, combined with genetic factors and stark inequalities, are driving rising levels of obesity, which increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.”
Labour said the figures were an outrage.
The report published on Wednesday said people faced a more aggressive and acute form of diabetes when it developed at a younger age.
“It is also associated with an increased risk of more rapid onset of devastating complications such as heart disease, kidney disease, sight loss and even an early death,” it said.
The report’s authors wrote: “We estimate nearly 168,000 people under the age of 40 are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the UK, with nearly 150,000 people under 40 diagnosed in England alone.”
Thousands more are living with the condition undiagnosed. Analysis suggests half of the people aged 16 to 44 with type 2 diabetes are unaware they have it.
The report also blamed “gross inequalities”, with people from the most deprived areas and those from black and south Asian backgrounds more likely to develop the condition.
It warned of a growing impact on the economy, with 43,000 people out of work as a result of long-term sickness “primarily because of their diabetes, a 79% increase since 2019”.
Diabetes is also listed as a secondary condition for hundreds of thousands more people who are unable to work, the study said. The number of people living with diabetes in the UK now tops 5 million.
The Guardian revealed in December how a devastating report commissioned by the government had warned that vulnerable children were being put at risk of serious health conditions because ministers had shelved anti-obesity policies until 2025.
The independent report said that ultra-processed foods (UPF) and products high in fat, sugar and salt had become “normalised” in children’s diets, with poorer parents powerless to curb them.
The government says it is tackling child obesity, but ministers have postponed measures including a 9pm junk-food advertising watershed and bans on online ads and unhealthy buy-one-get-one-free deals until October 2025.
The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said: “It is an outrage that tens of thousands more young people are now suffering with type 2 diabetes thanks to years of Tory cowardice.
“The Conservative party has chickened out of acting on junk food advertising time and time again, despite obesity costing the NHS billions and having terrible effects on the health of our children.”
Every child deserved a healthy start to life, and Labour would ban junk-food ads targeting children if the party won the next general election, he said.
A spokesperson for NHS England said: “The NHS has invested significantly in services to help people prevent, manage and, in some cases, reverse type 2 diabetes, including specific support for people under the age of 40 – but it is clear that reversing this trend requires concerted action across industry, government and society to tackle obesity.”
Marshall called on ministers to “put the building blocks of health in place for every child and young person, including access to green space, affordable, healthy food and quality housing”.
She said the report was “a damning indictment” of the barriers that many people faced to living a healthy life, where good food was affordable and exercise was not a luxury.
“There is a generational opportunity to stop this crisis in its tracks and we are calling on all political parties to seize it,” she said. “We need bold action to reverse the rising trend in type 2 diabetes, overturn our broken food environment and give every child and young person the best possible chance to grow up in good health.”
The health minister, Andrew Stephenson, insisted the government was committed to tackling the causes and effects of type 2 diabetes.
“We’ve invested more than £200m into diabetes research to accelerate the development of new treatments and improve care since 2019,” he said. “Alongside this, we’ve reduced sugar in everyday foods, introduced mandatory calorie labelling on menus, and we’ve recently expanded the effective NHS soups and shakes programme to help thousands more people.”
