Diabetes rates for young adults are growing faster than for any other age group, according to a new report from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama.

Diabetes rates increased nearly 30 percent for adults ages 18-34 within the past three years in Alabama, compared to a 24 percent increase across all age groups. Diabetes rates are fastest-growing for millennials nationwide as well.

Blue Cross Alabama has roughly 2.1 million customers in Alabama. About 171,000 of those have a diabetes diagnosis; more than 10,800 of them are ages 18-34.

Alabama as a whole has the third-highest rate of diabetes in the United States, at 13.5, behind Mississippi and West Virginia. About 9 percent of the U.S. population has diabetes.

Millennials are also experiencing the fastest growth in obesity rates, according to Blue Cross Blue Shield Association's national study.

Alabama has the second-highest adult obesity rate in the nation, at 35.6 percent, up from 11.2 percent in 1990. About a quarter of adults 18-25 are obese; nearly 40 percent of adults 26-44 are obese.

These findings track with some research nationally, which has pointed to the growing rate of obesity-related health conditions among young adults.

From 2003 to 2012 there was a 32 percent spike in strokes among women ages 18-34 and a 15 percent strike among men in the same age range.

Children are also seeing increases in diabetes. In a National Institutes of Health study, new cases of Type 2 diabetes, which is associated with obesity and represents the majority of diabetes cases, increased about 5 percent each year between 2002 and 2012 for kids under 20.

While young adults' diabetes and obesity rates are on the rise in some places, a 2016 Gallup study showed that millennials nationwide have a lower obesity rate compared with older generations. Nationally, about 20 percent of millennials are obese, compared with 32.5 percent of other generations. The study also found that diabetes rates for millennials nationally dropped half a percentage point between 2008 and 2016.