OBJECTIVES: The aims of this contribution are to update and more precisely quantify the existing data concerning age/gender-specific prevalence and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in an European setting (Germany). METHODS: To fulfill the aims of the study, a population-based analysis of the claims data collected by a statutory health insurance fund, and concerning its 5.4 million members, was done. A patient was classified as T2DM prevalent if he/she had received at least one inpatient and/or two outpatient diagnoses of T2DM (ICD10 code E11) in two different quarters between 01/01/2006 and 12/31/2008. A patient was considered to have had new onset T2DM in 2008 under one of three conditions; firstly, he/she had not received a diagnosis of T2DM in 2006 and 2007; secondly, had not received oral anti-diabetics in 2006/2007; and thirdly, had received either one inpatient or two outpatient T2DM diagnosis in 2008. RESULTS: In our sample, a total of 254,523 patients had T2DM. The prevalence of T2DM was 4.69 % (women: 3.26%; men: 6.03%). The average age of these T2DM patients was 64.8 years, and 66.4% were male. The incidence of T2DM in our sample was 4.889 cases per 1,000 person-years in men and 2.863 cases in 1,000 person-years in women. T2DM prevalence/incidence strongly depended on gender and age. Whereas the T2DM prevalence in both men and women was below 0.9% in all age groups <40 years, it increased up to 25.17% (men)/24.34% (women) in the second-highest age group, 85-90 years. CONCLUSIONS: A comparison of the distribution of AF prevalence/incidence in our population with that in already published studies shows that our figures are comparatively high. Obviously, in a large industrial nation such as Germany, care provision structures are going to be challenged by the requirement to treat more T2DM patients in the future.