A sweeping global study reveals that chronic kidney disease now affects nearly 800 million people and has become one of the world’s top 10 causes of death.
A new global analysis reveals that more people than ever are living with reduced kidney function. The number of affected individuals has climbed from 378 million in 1990 to 788 million in 2023 as populations have grown and aged. For the first time, chronic kidney disease (CKD) ranks among the ten leading causes of death worldwide.
The study, conducted by researchers at NYU Langone Health, the University of Glasgow, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, examined the global surge in CKD. The condition develops when the kidneys slowly lose their ability to remove waste and excess fluid from the blood. While mild cases may go unnoticed, advanced stages can lead to kidney failure, often requiring dialysis, replacement therapy, or a transplant.
According to the researchers, roughly 14% of adults worldwide now live with chronic kidney disease. The data also show that in 2023, about 1.5 million people died from the condition, reflecting an increase of more than 6% since 1993 after adjusting for global changes in age demographics.
“Our work shows that chronic kidney disease is common, deadly, and getting worse as a major public health issue,” said study co-senior author Josef Coresh, MD, PhD, director of NYU Langone’s Optimal Aging Institute. “These findings support efforts to recognize the condition alongside cancer, heart disease, and mental health concerns as a major priority for policymakers around the world.”
A Growing Global Health Priority
In May, the World Health Organization added chronic kidney disease to its global plan aimed at cutting early deaths from noncommunicable diseases by one-third before 2030. Coresh notes that to effectively address this growing crisis, experts need a clear and current understanding of how the disease is spreading across populations. He also serves as the Terry and Mel Karmazin Professor of Population Health at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
The new report, published in the journal The Lancet, is the most comprehensive estimate of the condition in nearly a decade, according to the authors. It is simultaneously being presented at the American Society of Nephrology’s annual Kidney Week conference.
The investigation was conducted as part of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2023 study, the world’s most comprehensive effort to track health loss across countries and over time. Its findings are widely used to guide policymaking and inform global health research.
For the study, the team analyzed 2,230 published research papers and national health datasets in 133 countries. Besides looking for patterns in diagnoses and mortality, the team examined the toll of disability brought about by chronic kidney disease.
A Driver of Heart Disease and Disability
Another major finding was that impaired kidney function, on top of killing people directly, was a key risk factor for heart disease, contributing to about 12% of global cardiovascular mortality. The results showed further that in 2023, the condition was the 12th leading cause of diminished quality of life from disability. The biggest risk factors for kidney disease were found to be high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and high body mass index (a measure of obesity).
Most people with chronic kidney disease in the study were in the early stages of the condition. This is important, says Coresh, because swift treatment with drugs and lifestyle changes can prevent the need for more dramatic and expensive interventions such as dialysis and kidney transplantation.
He adds that in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and other low-income regions, relatively few people receive dialysis or kidney transplants — likely because these treatments are less available and harder to afford in those areas.
“Chronic kidney disease is underdiagnosed and undertreated,” said study co-lead author Morgan Grams, MD, PhD. “Our report underscores the need for more urine testing to catch it early and the need to ensure that patients can afford and access therapy once they are diagnosed.”
Grams, the Susan and Morris Mark Professor of Medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, notes that new medications have become available in the past five years that can slow kidney disease progression and reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, and heart failure. However, it will take time to see improvements on a global scale.
Grams also cautions that since chronic kidney disease is undertested, it may be even more common than the current results suggest.
Reference: “Global, regional, and national burden of chronic kidney disease in adults, 1990–2023, and its attributable risk factors: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023” by GBD 2023 Chronic Kidney Disease Collaborators, 7 November 2025, The Lancet.
DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01853-7
Funding for the study was provided by National Institutes of Health grant R01DK100446, the Gates Foundation, and the National Kidney Foundation.
Coresh is a scientific adviser and equity holder in Healthy.io, a health technology company that offers remote clinical testing and related services. He is also a consultant for SomaLogic. These relationships are disclosed and managed by NYU Langone Health policies and procedures.
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