Today is World Diabetes Day. To mark it, the following chart provides insight on the prevalence of type 1 diabetes, a chronic autoimmune disease, in a selection of countries.
According to the , there are two main types of diabetes: Diabetes type 1 is described as a 鈥渓ifelong condition where the body's immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin鈥, whiule type 2 occurs when 鈥渢he body does not produce enough insulin, or the body's cells do not react to insulin properly.鈥 Unlike type 2 diabetes, there are no lifestyle changes that you can make to lower your risk of developing type 1.
, more than 1.4 million people are currently living with type 1 diabetes in the United States.
Considering the comparatively smaller population sizes, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada have particularly high numbers of cases.
Type 1 diabetes can occur at any age, but it usually occurs in . According to the International Diabetes Foundation, around 61 percent of people currently living with type 1 diabetes in the U.S. are between 20 and 59 years old, 28 percent are over 60 and around 12 percent are 20 or younger.
