Global Statistics
- Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, 60 million people have contracted HIV and 25 million have died of AIDS-related causes.
- As of 2008, 33.4 million people were living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.
- The annual number of new HIV infections declined from 3.2 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2008. Still, more than 7,000 people contract HIV every day.
- In 2008, an estimated 2 million adults and children died from AIDS, a 10% reduction from the peak number of AIDS-related deaths in 2004.
- More than half of new infections are among those under 25 years of age.
- Sub-Saharan Africa has been hardest hit by the epidemic. The region has 22.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS (67% of the worldwide total) and in 2008 accounted for 68% of all new HIV infections among adults, 91% of all new HIV infections among children and 72% of the world’s AIDS-related deaths — even though only 12% of the global population lives there.
- Of the 2.1 million children living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, 91% live in sub-Saharan Africa.
- An estimated 5.7 million South Africans are infected with HIV, more than any other country. In South Africa, 920,000 people are currently receiving anti-retroviral treatment – just over half of the 1.7 million who need the drugs
- Africa has more than 12 million AIDS orphans.
- Women account for nearly half of all adults living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and 61% of those in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Although 430,000 children under age 15 became infected with HIV in 2008, this number has been declining since 2002 due to expanded services focused on preventing mother-to-child transmission.
- An estimated 1.5 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, a 66% increase since 2001. Although injection drug use remains the primary route of transmission in this region, epidemics are now increasingly characterized by significant sexual transmission.
- Injections drug users represent 10% of all those living with HIV. An estimated 30% of HIV transmission outside sub-Saharan Africa is driven by unsafe injection practices — a growing problem in countries like Russia, China, Malaysia and Thailand.
Selected Sources:
UNAIDS,
2009 AIDS Epidemic Update,
Page last updated:
3/25/2010