© 2017 Primary Care Diabetes Europe Obesity rates in Cyprus are very high and epidemiological information on type 2 diabetes mellitus is limited. The correlates of type 2 diabetes among adults remain unknown in the Cypriot population. Thus, the purpose of this study is to provide the first national estimate of the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and investigate its correlates. A randomly stratified nationally sample of 1001 adults aged 18–80 participated in the study. Only 950 subjects completed the study. All subjects were free of any diseases (known diabetes, kidney, liver), medication and supplementation. The overall prevalence of diabetes and pre-diabetes based on WHO criteria was 9.2% and 16.3%, respectively. After adjusting for age, energy intake, smoking and physical activity participants with obesity (BMI) (OR = 2.00, P < 0.001), waist circumference (WC) (OR = 2.08, P < 0.001), hypertension (HT) (OR = 1.99, P < 0.001) and hypercholesterolemia (HC) (OR = 2.07, P < 0.007) were most likely to develop T2DM compared with the normal ones. The odds of having diabetes were also found significant between subjects with high levels of triglycerides (TG) (OR = 1.49, P < 0.007), compared with the normal ones and between subjects with low levels of HDL (OR = 1.44, P < 0.008) compared with the ones with high levels of HDL. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Cyprus is relatively medium–high. However, the pre-diabetes rates are very high showing a promising increase toward total rates of type 2 diabetes. Obesity, HT, WC, TG, HC and low HDL are all strong correlates of type 2 diabetes. Healthy education programs should be initiated for young and older-aged people and those with described abnormal risk factors.