Abstract Objectives To determine life expectancy and causes of death after bariatric surgery in relation to baseline type 2 diabetes (T2D) in the prospective, Swedish Obese Subjects study. Methods The study included 2010 patients with obesity who underwent bariatric surgery and 2037 matched controls, eligible for surgery. The surgery group underwent gastric bypass (n = 265), banding (n = 376), or vertical banded gastroplasty (n = 1369). The control group (n = 2037) received usual obesity care.