Diabetes In Ireland

This is purely for illustration (due to relatively small numbers (~750) , and I'm mixing data from two waves), but it at least seems that diabetes is more common in Leinster. The overall rate of 7-8% seems low to me, at least for this age cohort (over 50s). I've also broken down the rate by type of area. Again not to be taken too seriously, the confidence intervals are wide. The data is from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe see www.share-project.org. The full panel data set comprises over 30,000 individuals across Europe, has modules on too many domains to mention here, and is a fantastic resource for anyone interesed in social science. A summary of the Irish results from the first wave is available here. Data collection for a life history wave has just been completed.

Type Of Area Of Residence	Diabetes Prevalence Rate
A Big City	0.11
The Suburbs Or Outskirts Of A Big City	0.07
A Large Town	0.07
A Small Town	0.12
A Rural Area Or Village	0.06
Average	0.07

Diabetes belt in the USA

This graphic image shows the incidence of diabetes in the USA where an estimated 18 million now have the disease. It is based on county level data. In the darkest parts of the map over 11% have been diagnosed as discussed in this Scientific American article. Given the swathe it cuts across the south, it could perhaps be called a "Grits belt".
It would be very interesting to see a similar graph for Ireland. I don't know if that is possible.