(From 2018 USRDA Data Volume 2: ESRD in the United States)

Diabetes mellitus remains the predominant likely underlying cause of treated ESRD worldwide. Nearly 71 percent of the countries that participated in the U.S. Renal Data system report assigned DM as the primary cause for the incidence of treated ESRD and a key contributor to the global burden of kidney disease and ESRD.

Some stats gleaned from the USRDA report:

• In 2016, Malaysia, Singapore and the Jalisco region of Mexico reported the highest proportions of patients with new ESRD due to diabetes, at 67%, 66%, and 65%, respectively.
• The Jalisco region of Mexico had the highest ESRD incidence rate due to DM, at nearly 231 new ESRD persons per million population (PMP).
• The greatest average yearly increase in diabetes-related ESRD incidence rates from 2003 to 2016 occurred in the Jalisco region of Mexico and Malaysia where incidence rates of treated ESRD due to diabetes have increased an average of 7.8 and 9.5 patients PMP per year, respectively.
• Other increases in diabetes-related ESRD incidence rates from 2002 to 2003 and 2014 to 2015 occurred in Russia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and the Republic of Korea, where rates have more than doubled over this period. In Thailand, the incidence of ESRD due to diabetes has more than doubled since 2010.
• In addition, diabetes was listed as the primary cause of new ESRD for 40% to 50% of patients in Brazil, Slovakia, Uruguay, Hungary, Thailand, Jordan, Japan, Qatar, Kuwait, Taiwan, the U.S., Indonesia, Chile, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Israel, and the Republic of Korea.

In contrast, in 2016, diabetes was the primary cause of ESRD for 20 percent or less of new ESRD patients in Albania, South Africa, the Netherlands, Russia, Italy, Estonia, Lithuania, Iceland, Norway, Latvia and Romania.