A clinic-based study of 1,063 patients with Type 2 diabetes recruited from 1973 to 1982 identified 533 deaths (attributed to coronary heart disease in 268 cases) by 31 December 1989. When compared to the general population of Australia the overall standardised mortality ratio was 1.42 (95 per cent confidence interval (CI) 1.26 to 1.58) for females and 1.19 (CI 1.03 to 1.35) for males. Cox regression analysis showed that having coronary heart disease or absence of foot pulses at the time of entrance to the study were the major independent risk factors for overall mortality after adjustment for initial age. Elevated cholesterol and blood pressure were found to be major independent risk factors for death from coronary heart disease.