Aim To explore the prevalence and related factors influencing diabetes stigma among Chinese young and middle‐aged patients with type 2 diabetes. Design A cross‐sectional, quantitative study was conducted through questionnaires. Methods A total of 453 young and middle‐aged patients with type 2 diabetes were recruited. Questionnaire survey was conducted with convenience sampling from September 2019 to December 2020. This included demographic questionnaire, Type 2 Diabetes Stigma Assessment Scale (DSAS‐2) and Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD‐RISC). The STROBE checklist was applied as the reporting guideline for this study. Results The scores of diabetes stigma and resilience of patients were 48.18 ± 14.52 and 66.02 ± 7.18, respectively. Diabetes stigma was negatively correlated with resilience, the correlation coefficient was −0.581. The results showed that the complications, diabetes year, monthly income and insulin treatment are important factors affecting stigma. In addition, it is resilience that was a protective factor of diabetes stigma, explaining 27.2% of the variance in diabetes stigma.