Chronic kidney disease now affects nearly 800 million people globally and has become one of the world's leading causes of death, according to a sweeping 2025 analysis. The condition often develops silently, with no symptoms in early stages, making it a hidden health crisis that experts say is spreading faster than anticipated. Researchers estimate that about 14% of adults worldwide have some degree of kidney disease, yet many never receive a diagnosis or treatment that could slow its progression.

How Has Kidney Disease Grown So Dramatically?

The scale of the kidney disease epidemic has expanded dramatically over the past three decades. In 1990, approximately 378 million people had chronic kidney disease. By 2023, that number had more than doubled to 788 million, according to the analysis led by researchers at NYU Langone Health, the University of Glasgow, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. The research examined data from 2,230 published studies and national health datasets from 133 countries, making it the most comprehensive global estimate of chronic kidney disease in nearly a decade.

As populations have aged and grown worldwide, chronic kidney disease has climbed into the top 10 causes of death globally for the first time. In 2023 alone, roughly 1.5 million people died from the condition, with death rates more than 6% higher than they were in 1993. The disease's impact extends beyond the kidneys themselves; impaired kidney function was a major risk factor for heart disease, contributing to about 12% of all cardiovascular deaths globally.

Why Is Early Detection So Critical for Kidney Health?

Most people with chronic kidney disease are still in early stages when the condition is most treatable. This timing matters enormously because medications and lifestyle changes can slow the disease's progression and help patients avoid more intensive treatments like dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, access to early detection and treatment remains deeply uneven across the world.

In sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and other low-income regions, relatively few people receive dialysis or kidney transplants, largely because these treatments are less available and harder to afford. Beyond access challenges, many people with kidney disease are never tested at all, meaning the true prevalence may be even higher than current estimates suggest.

"Chronic kidney disease is underdiagnosed and undertreated. 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," said Morgan Grams, MD, PhD.

Morgan Grams, MD, PhD, Susan and Morris Mark Professor of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine

What Are the Main Risk Factors for Kidney Disease?

The analysis identified several modifiable factors that significantly increase the risk of developing chronic kidney disease. Understanding these risk factors is essential because they are often manageable through lifestyle changes and medical treatment.

• High Blood Sugar: Elevated glucose levels, particularly in people with diabetes, damage the delicate filtering structures in the kidneys over time and represent one of the leading preventable causes of kidney disease.
• High Blood Pressure: Hypertension puts constant strain on blood vessels in the kidneys, gradually reducing their ability to filter waste and fluid from the bloodstream effectively.
• High Body Mass Index: Obesity and excess weight increase inflammation and metabolic stress on the kidneys, accelerating kidney damage and reducing overall kidney function.

How to Protect Your Kidney Function

Experts emphasize that early intervention can significantly change the trajectory of kidney disease. Several approaches have emerged as particularly effective in slowing progression and reducing complications.

• Medication Management: Several medications introduced over the past five years can slow kidney disease progression and lower the risk of heart attack, stroke, and heart failure. These include SGLT2 inhibitors, GLP-1-based therapies, and nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, which are now being used in people with chronic kidney disease even without diabetes.
• Regular Testing: Urine testing and blood work to measure kidney function should be part of routine health screening, especially for people with diabetes, high blood pressure, or a family history of kidney disease.
• Lifestyle Modifications: Managing blood sugar through diet and exercise, controlling blood pressure, and maintaining a healthy weight are foundational steps that can prevent or delay kidney disease onset.

Kidney disease experts are also updating clinical guidance to reflect emerging evidence. Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes, an organization that develops widely used kidney care guidelines, has been updating its 2024 chronic kidney disease guidance to address these newer kidney protective treatments and their benefits across different patient populations.

"Our work shows that chronic kidney disease is common, deadly, and getting worse as a major public health issue. 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," said Josef Coresh, MD, PhD.

Josef Coresh, MD, PhD, Director of NYU Langone's Optimal Aging Institute

What Does the Future Hold for Kidney Disease Prevention?

The growing recognition of chronic kidney disease as a global health priority reflects a fundamental shift in how experts understand the condition. Kidney disease is no longer viewed solely as a late-stage condition that inevitably leads to dialysis or transplantation. Instead, it is increasingly understood as a quiet, common, and dangerous disorder that can be detected earlier, treated sooner, and linked closely to some of the world's biggest killers.

In May 2025, the World Health Organization formally placed chronic kidney disease on its agenda for reducing early deaths from noncommunicable diseases by one-third before 2030. Since that announcement, kidney experts have highlighted projections suggesting that chronic kidney disease deaths could continue rising in the decades ahead, even as deaths from stroke and ischemic heart disease are expected to fall sharply. This divergence underscores the urgency of improving early detection, access to treatment, and public awareness about kidney health.

The message from researchers is clear: kidney disease is preventable and treatable when caught early, but only if people are tested and have access to care. As new medications and treatment approaches continue to emerge, the window for intervention is expanding, offering hope that the trajectory of this silent epidemic can be reversed.