Type 2 diabetes is increasingly affecting young adults in Germany, with new evidence showing poverty, low education and first-generation migration background as factors associated with the disease. A study from the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology—BIPS, using data from the German National Cohort (NAKO), finds that these social disparities persist even after accounting for family history and individual lifestyle, prompting calls for a shift from purely behavioral advice to structural environment-focused prevention.