The number of city residents who died of diabetes increased dramatically last year, making the disease one of the five leading causes of deaths in the five boroughs, according to the city’s latest report on vital statistics.

The report, an annual summary of how New Yorkers live and die in the city, found that heart disease, cancer, pneumonia, diabetes, and stroke were the top causes of death among the 59,213 people who passed away in 2003.

HIV and AIDS dropped from the fifth-leading cause of death to sixth, a decline health officials attribute to increased care. While the number of deaths was an historic low, the skyrocketing diabetes rates – a national problem linked to the country’s expanded waistlines and ballooning levels of obesity – is a cause for alarm, officials at the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said.

“Too many people die prematurely from preventable causes,” the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Frieden, said in a statement yesterday. “Heart disease goes hand-in-hand with diabetes and accounts for 80% of diabetes-related deaths.”

“This is of utmost concern because diabetes – which can be controlled – has more than doubled over the past ten years, and it remains an under-diagnosed condition,” he continued. “Regular physical activity and modest weight loss can reduce the risk of developing diabetes by more than half.”

Many health problems, not surprisingly, were most acute in low-income minority neighborhoods. In the five boroughs, diabetes deaths among Hispanics were four times higher than they were among whites and Asians. The diabetes death rate was twice as high among New York City’s black residents, and particularly elevated in low-income neighborhoods in the South Bronx, Central Brooklyn, and Central and East Harlem.

Some of the facts in the report, such as an increase in the infant-mortality rate, have been released at different points throughout the year. That rate – a tally of deaths under age 1 that is generally considered a telling indicator for the overall health of a population – increased to 807 from 742 in 2002 after almost a decade of decline. The number of teenagers having babies decreased, consistent with a decade-long trend. Those teenagers who did get pregnant also were more apt to seek prenatal care – up 21% in the last 10 years, according to the report.

The 42-page report on vital statistics is filled with charts and graphs, breaking down health information by race, age, sex, and neighborhood. The report, which the city has been publishing since the times of yellow fever and cholera, is regarded by health officials as an important tool in determining where the agency targets outreach and which programs the city finances.

“Like many of our data sources, vital statistics definitely point us toward where we need to be working,” the deputy commissioner at the health department’s division of epidemiology, Lorna Thorpe, said.” Mortality death is an important indicator – it’s one of many. I don’t think deaths alone tell us everything, but they are important.”

The report also said there were 124,345 babies born in 2003, and 61,101 marriages. The latter number was down from 65,490 in 2002.

According to a survey conducted earlier this year, which was highlighted in the report released yesterday, 76% of high school students reported using a condom the last time they had sex.