About 410,000 adults in the state are being treated for the chronic disease. Another 205,000 residents probably have diabetes but don't know it, according to the report, the state's first snapshot on the disease in four years.

Nationwide, more people are getting diabetes as Americans' waistlines have increased and physical activity has declined. In the mid-90s, Georgia's diabetes rate was below the national average, a trend that ended in 1999.

Now the state's proportion of people being treated for diabetes (7.1 percent of the population) is well-above the nationwide rate of about 6.5 percent, said Magon Mbadugha, program manager for the division's diabetes program.

While the report estimated that about 205,000 residents are unaware they are diabetic, Mbadugha said that number could be as high as 400,000 Georgians.

"The more obese the nation has become, the more diabetes cases" the country has, Mbadugha said. "Not only have we become more obese but we have become more inactive."

The report also found that the elderly and blacks are more likely to have diabetes than other age or racial groups and about $138 million was spent in 2000 to handle diabetes-related hospitalizations.

Diabetes is a metabolism disorder that prevents glucose -- the body's main source of energy -- from getting into the body's cells. Instead glucose builds up in the blood. Diabetics either have too little insulin -- needed to get glucose into cells -- or the cells do not respond to their insulin.

The disease is the state's sixth most common cause of death after heart disease, cancer, stroke, accidental injury and chronic respiratory disease. The Georgia death rate from diabetes rose from 18.5 per 100,000 people in 1980 to 22.6 per 100,000 in 2000.

Diabetes can cause serious health complications including heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, and foot amputations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But regular physical activity -- jogging, walking, swimming or even gardening or vacuuming -- can reduce the risk of developing diabetes, which appears to be associated with obesity, the CDC said.