Statistics: Worldwide

• More than 34 million people now live with HIV/AIDS.
• 3.3 million of them are under the age of 15.
• In 2011, an estimated 2.5 million people were newly infected with HIV.
• 330,000 were under the age of 15.
• Every day nearly 7,000 people contract HIV—nearly 300 every hour.
• In 2011, 1.7 million people died from AIDS.
• 230,000 of them were under the age of 15.
• Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 60 million people have contracted HIV and nearly 30 million have died of HIV-related causes.

The Regional Picture 

Sub-Saharan Africa
More than two-thirds (69 percent) of all people living with HIV, 23.5 million, live in sub-Saharan Africa—including 91 percent of the world’s HIV-positive children. In 2011, an estimated 1.8 million people in the region became newly infected. An estimated 1.2 million adults and children died of AIDS, accounting for 71 percent of the world’s AIDS deaths in 2011.

Asia and the Pacific
In Asia and the Pacific, nearly 372,000 people became newly infected in 2011, bringing the total number of people living with HIV/AIDS there to nearly 5 million. AIDS claimed an estimated 310,000 lives in the region in 2011.

Caribbean
More than 13,000 people became newly infected in the Caribbean in 2011, bringing the total number of people living with HIV/AIDS there to more than 230,000. AIDS claimed an estimated 10,000 lives in 2011.

Central and South America
There were an estimated 83,000 new HIV/AIDS infections and 54,000 AIDS-related deaths in Central and South America in 2011. This region currently has 1.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS.

North Africa and the Middle East
Approximately 300,000 people are living with HIV in this region and an estimated 37,000 people became newly infected in 2011. An estimated 23,000 adults and children died of AIDS.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Some 140,000 people were newly infected with HIV in 2011, bringing the number of people living with HIV/AIDS to 1.4 million. HIV/AIDS claimed 92,000 lives in 2011.

Western and Central Europe
In 2011, there were 30,000 new cases of HIV, bringing the number of people living with HIV in Western and Central Europe to 900,000. An estimated 7,000 people in these regions died of AIDS in 2011.

Source: UNAIDS World AIDS Day Report 2012; UNAIDS Fact Sheet 2012; Kaiser Family Foundation. 

(Last updated November 2012)