HIV/AIDS Statistics - Worldwide
Updated September 2008
There are 33.2 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.
Approximately 2.5 million people were newly infected with HIV (the AIDS virus) in 2007. UNAIDS estimates that HIV/AIDS took the lives of more than 2.1 million people in 2007.
Women account for approximately 50% of people infected with HIV. In most regions of the world, HIV is affecting women and girls in increasing numbers.
In 2007, UNAIDS reported that roughly 22.5 million of those living with HIV/AIDS were living in Africa, with an HIV prevalence rate in the general population of 5%. In many African countries — Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, and Zimbabwe particularly — infection rates have stabilized or declined. This is due in part to the scaling up of antiretroviral treatment services and demonstrates that the epidemic does yield to appropriate and resolute responses.
South and East Asia makes up the second most affected region, with over 4 million people living with HIV/AIDS.
An estimated 1.5 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
HIV prevalence in the Caribbean is the second highest in the world, after sub-Saharan Africa, with HIV prevalence rates of 1%.
In Latin America, 100,000 people were newly infected with HIV in 2007, bringing to 1.6 million the number of people living with HIV/AIDS.
North America, Western and Central Europe account for 2.1 million HIV infections.
While systematic surveillance remains inadequate in the Middle East and North Africa, available data suggests that 380,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS, with an estimated 35,000 people in the region newly infected with HIV in 2007.
1. UNAIDS 2007 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic
