Singapore Health Snapshot: How Common Are Kidney Disease, Diabetes, Dementia and Indigestion Here?

Singapore is a small country with a large amount of health data attached to it. Pulled together, the prevalence figures for four common conditions — chronic kidney disease, diabetes, dementia, and indigestion (dyspepsia) — tell a mixed but revealing story: Singapore runs well above its neighbours on some measures, sits closer to the middle on others, and in one case — indigestion — stands out from the entire region by a wide margin. Here’s what the published numbers actually show, condition by condition.

Chronic kidney disease: comparatively high, but not the region’s highest

Globally, chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects an estimated 8% to 16% of the population, with a global age-standardised prevalence in adults of about 14.2% — roughly 1 in 7 adults — according to a 2025 systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study published in The Lancet.

Within the region, Singapore’s CKD prevalence sits at 14.9%, based on figures compiled for a clinical education presentation on CKD prevention. That places Singapore close to the global average, but the regional spread is wide:

Singapore lands below the Philippines and Malaysia but above every other country and territory in the comparison — a comparatively high position that translates into roughly 1 in 7 adults living with some degree of reduced kidney function.

Dementia: Singapore near the regional middle, but rising with age

For dementia, Singapore’s prevalence among adults aged 60 and above stands at 8.8%, based on the WiSE (Well-being of the Singapore Elderly) study’s 2023 estimate. Regionally, that places Singapore in the middle of a fairly tight cluster:

The tight range across all five countries (7.8–10.6%) suggests dementia prevalence in older adults is less variable across this part of the region than, say, CKD or dyspepsia rates — though it’s worth noting these figures aren’t perfectly comparable, since each is drawn from a different national study with its own methodology and time period.

Diabetes: a clear age gradient within Singapore itself

Singapore’s most detailed diabetes data comes from the Singapore National Population Health Survey 2024, which breaks prevalence down by age group rather than just giving a single national figure — and the gradient is steep:

Singapore’s overall adult prevalence of 9% sits close to the global adult average of 10.5% reported by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in 2021 — though the IDF figure comes with an important caveat: almost half of people living with diabetes globally are unaware they have the condition. The steep rise after age 50 in Singapore’s own data — from 5% in the 40s to 13% in the 50s, and up to 22% by the 60s — mirrors a pattern seen across the region, where China and India are described in the same research as the two epicentres of the broader Asian type 2 diabetes trend, together accounting for well over 100 million people living with diabetes as of 2019 in China alone.

Indigestion: Singapore tops the regional table

Of the four conditions compared here, indigestion (dyspepsia) shows Singapore in the most striking position: highest in its regional comparison, by a clear margin. A systematic review and meta-analysis on the global prevalence of uninvestigated dyspepsia (using the Rome diagnostic criteria) found the following rates across Asian countries and territories:

(Regional dyspepsia figures per the 2020 Rome-criteria systematic review and meta-analysis, cross-referenced with a 2011 review on the epidemiology of uninvestigated and functional dyspepsia in Asia.)

At 33%, Singapore’s rate is more than double Malaysia’s (15%) and noticeably higher than its closest regional comparator, Taiwan, at 28%. For context, a separate, broader global estimate puts general indigestion prevalence at 20–30% of adults worldwide — meaning Singapore’s rate sits above even the upper end of that global range.

Reading these numbers together

No single explanation accounts for why Singapore’s rates land where they do across these four conditions — diet, ageing population structure, screening intensity, diagnostic criteria, and genuine underlying prevalence all play a role, and disentangling them is beyond what any one prevalence study can do. Putting the four side by side does, however, show that Singapore’s position varies a lot by condition: comparatively high but not the highest for CKD, closer to the regional middle for dementia, roughly in line with the global average for diabetes, and a clear outlier — highest in the region by some margin — for indigestion. That variation is itself useful context: it’s a reminder that “how common is this in Singapore” doesn’t have one answer that applies across every condition, and it’s worth checking the specific numbers for whatever condition is actually relevant to you rather than assuming a single regional pattern.

Frequently asked questions

Why does Singapore have such a high rate of indigestion compared with its neighbours? The research summarised here doesn’t establish a single cause — it’s a prevalence comparison, not a causal study. Contributing factors commonly discussed in the broader indigestion literature include diet, eating pace, stress levels, and rates of H. pylori infection, but no single study attributes Singapore’s specific 33% figure to one factor.

Are these figures directly comparable across countries? Not perfectly. Each figure comes from a different national or regional study, often using different survey years, age ranges, and diagnostic definitions. They’re useful for spotting broad patterns and relative positioning, but shouldn’t be read as a single standardised international dataset.

Is Singapore’s diabetes rate increasing? The National Population Health Survey 2024 data shown here is a single snapshot by age group, not a trend line, so it doesn’t directly show whether rates are rising over time. However, the steep increase in prevalence with age within the same snapshot — from 5% in the 40s to 22% by the 60s — illustrates how much diabetes risk compounds with age in the current population.

This article summarises population-level prevalence statistics for general information purposes and is not a substitute for individual health advice. If you have concerns about your own risk for any of the conditions discussed, speak to your doctor.