Australia has lower rates of diabetes than New Zealand latest data from the International Diabetes Federation Diabetes Atlas reveals.

Released at this week’s World Diabetes Congress the latest figures showed that Australia had a diabetes rate of five percent compared to New Zealand’s seven percent, making it one of the lowest ranked developed nations.

While the US leads the league table of developed nations (11%) the Pacific Islands of Tokelau (30%) Nauru (24%) and the Cook Islands (21%) have the highest rates of diabetes in the world.

Indigenous Australians and New Zealand Māori continue to have much higher rates of diabetes than their country’s average.

The figures also showed that Australia had the highest spending per person with diabetes in the Western pacific region.