Rates of HIV infection vary enormously across the world and where you live does make a difference.
Global statistics
By the end of 2011, an estimated 34 million people were living with HIV worldwide, up 17% from 2001.
This is the result of both the continued large number of new HIV infections and a significant expansion of access to antiretroviral therapy, which has helped reduce AIDS-related deaths, especially in the last few years. At least part of the large number of new infections is due to increased access to testing. There are now 8 million people with access to treatment and in low and middle income countries, more than 80% of those eligible are receiving HIV treatment. However there are at least 7 million people with HIV eligible but without access to treatment.
New HIV Infections and AIDS-related deaths
There were 2.5 million new HIV infections in 2011, nearly 15 per cent less than in 2001, and around one fifth the number of new infections at the peak of the epidemic in 1997. The number of people becoming infected with HIV is continuing to fall generally but more rapidly in some countries than in others. HIV rates have fallen by 50 per cent or more in 25 countries since 2001. There have been significant reductions in areas such as the Caribbean and amongst newborn children. However there have also been increases in regions such as the Middle East and North Africa.
The number of AIDS-related deaths fell to 1.7 million in 2010, down 24 per cent from a peak of 2.2 million in 2005. Globally, there have been more than half a million less deaths in 2001 compared to 2005.
Where you live makes a difference
The number of people with HIV has risen in every region of the world in the past decade, with the highest concentration of the pandemic still in Africa but with the largest increases in new diagnoses being seen in East Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In terms of overall prevalence, around five per cent of all people in sub-Saharan Africa have HIV and by comparison, the second highest prevalence area, the Caribbean, had just under one per cent.
- Africa
- East Europe/Central Asia
- Other regions
- Women and children
Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa still remains the region most heavily affected by HIV. In 2011 about two thirds of all people living with HIV resided in sub-Saharan Africa, a region with only 12 per cent of the global population. Sub-Saharan Africa also accounted for 72 per cent of new HIV infections in 2011, although there was a significant fall in the rate of new infections. The epidemic continues to be most severe in southern Africa, with South Africa having more people living with HIV (approaching 6 million) than any other country in the world.
The total number of new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa has dropped by more than 26 per cent, down to 1.9 million from the estimated 2.6 million at the height of the epidemic in 1997.
Almost half of the deaths from AIDS-related illnesses in 2011 occurred in southern Africa. AIDS has claimed at least one million lives annually in sub-Saharan Africa since 1998. However, since then, AIDS-related deaths have steadily decreased, as free HIV treatment has become more widely available in the region.
East Europe/Central Asia
The largest increases in HIV rates in the last decade have been seen in Eastern Europe and Central Asia with more than a three fold increase in people living with HIV between 2001 to 2011.
Russia and the Ukraine make up almost 90 per cent of the region's epidemic with injecting drug use the leading cause of HIV infection.
In contrast to most other regions, AIDS-related deaths continue to rise in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Other regions
Looking at the Western developed world, the total number of people living with HIV in North America and Western and Central Europe reached an estimated 2.3 million in 2011, one third more than in 2001. Around 1.3 million people with HIV live in the United States of America, more than half of the total for these regions.
Despite universal access to treatment, care and support and widespread awareness, the epidemic in North America and Western and Central Europe is persistent and HIV incidence has changed little since 2004. However, the number of AIDS-related deaths has varied little since 2000, despite the 34 per cent increase in the number of people living with HIV.
Women and children
While HIV in Western Europe and the UK disproportionately affects gay men, across the globe women are often just as vulnerable to HIV. Half (50 per cent) of all the people living with HIV worldwide in 2011 were women and in sub-Saharan Africa this proportion rises to 58 per cent.
In some countries, particularly in Africa, HIV prevalence among women is estimated to be twice that amongst men. Of the people in low and middle income countries with access to antiretroviral therapy, 68 per cent were women. Initiatives to prevent violence against women, improve women’s rights and increase access to contraception will all be essential in tackling the female HIV epidemic.
In 2011, new infections in children were 43 per cent lower than in 2003, and 24 per cent lower than 2009. The number of new HIV diagnoses in children in 2011 reached 330,000 and the estimated number of children living with HIV increased to 3.3 million.
Of children living with HIV who are eligible for treatment, 72 per cent do not have access. The number of orphans due to AIDS appears to have peaked at over 14 million children. The number of deaths related to AIDS in children peaked in 2004-5 and is now slowly declining.