HIV and AIDS Statistics - Worldwide
Updated November 2011
More people than ever are living with HIV, largely due to greater access to treatment.
At the end of 2010, an estimated 34 million people [31.6 million – 35.2 million] were living with HIV worldwide, up 17% from 2001. This reflects the continued large number of new HIV infections and a significant expansion of access to antiretroviral (anti-HIV) therapy, which has helped reduce AIDS-related deaths, especially in more recent years.
There were 2.7 million [2.4 million–2.9 million] new HIV infections in 2010, including an estimated 390 000 [340 000–450 000] among children. This was 15% less than in 2001, and 21% below the number of new infections at the peak of the epidemic in 1997.
AIDS-related deaths are decreasing: The number of people dying of AIDS-related causes fell to 1.8 million [1.6 million – 1.9 million] in 2010, down from a peak of 2.2 million [2.1 million – 2.5 million] in the mid-2000s. A total of 2.5 million deaths have been averted in low- and middle-income countries since 1995 due to antiretroviral therapy being introduced, according to new calculations by
UNAIDS. Much of that success has come in the past two years when rapid scale-up of access to treatment occurred; in 2010 alone, 700 000 AIDS-related deaths were averted.
1. UNAIDS 2011 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic
