Diabetes has been estimated to affect around one million Australians and isreportedly increasing in prevalence. Australian hospitals data help to give anindication of the impact of diabetes on health service use. This report presentsinformation on Australian hospital statistics for people with diabetes; trends arepresented for 1996-97 to 1998-99 and for 2000-01 to 2003-04, and data for2003-04 are examined for a number of key characteristics.