In 2004–05, the prevalence of diabetes among Indigenous people was estimated to be over 3 times the rate of non-Indigenous people.

In the same year, 62% of Indigenous people aged 15 years and over were estimated to be either overweight or obese, compared with 51% of non-Indigenous people.

Diabetes hospitalisations for Indigenous people were nearly 11 times as high as for other Australians in 2004–05. Hospitalisations for kidney complications among Indigenous people were 29 times as high as for other Australian people.

The death rate from diabetes among Indigenous people was almost 12 times that experienced by non-Indigenous Australians.

Death rates from renal complications among Indigenous people were 19 times that of non-Indigenous people and deaths from CHD, stroke, PVD and lower limb ulcers were approximately 7 times as high.

Diabetes prevalence rates among people in the fifth of the population with the lowest socioeconomic position are nearly twice as high as those in the fifth of the population with the highest socioeconomic position.

Diabetes death rates increased with decreasing socioeconomic position. During 2003–2005, the diabetes death rate in the lowest socioeconomic group was nearly twice the rate in highest socioeconomic group.

In 2004–05, the respective hospitalisation rates for diabetes among people living in Remote and Very Remote areas were 2 and 3 times as high as the rate for people living in Major Cities.

The death rate from diabetes among people living in Remote and Very Remote areas was 2 and 4 times that experienced by people in Major Cities.