About 0.7% of adults worldwide are living with HIV, which translates to roughly 40.8 million people as of 2024. That number represents everyone between the ages of 15 and 49 across all countries, though the actual burden varies enormously depending on where you look.
The Global Picture
At the global level, fewer than 1 in 100 adults carry HIV. That 0.7% figure comes from UNAIDS, the main international body tracking the epidemic, and it has held relatively steady in recent years. The reason the percentage stays flat even as new infections continue is that effective treatment now keeps people alive for decades. The total number of people living with HIV grows not because the epidemic is out of control, but because fewer people are dying from it.
Of those 40.8 million people, about 87% know their status. That leaves an estimated 5.3 million people worldwide who are HIV-positive and don’t know it, a group that accounts for a disproportionate share of new transmissions.
Sub-Saharan Africa Carries the Heaviest Burden
The global average masks a stark geographic divide. In the WHO African Region, 3.1% of adults were living with HIV in 2024, more than four times the global rate. Within that region, certain countries push far higher. Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) has long had the world’s highest national prevalence, with rates among young women alone reaching nearly 14% in recent surveys. Lesotho, South Africa, and Botswana also report adult prevalence rates well above 10%.
Young women in eastern and southern Africa face especially steep risk. A CDC survey across seven African countries found that 3.6% of girls and young women aged 15 to 24 were HIV-positive, with rates as high as 13.9% in Eswatini and 11.1% in Lesotho. In Zimbabwe and Zambia, roughly 6% of young women in that age group were living with HIV. These numbers reflect a combination of biological vulnerability, gender inequality, and gaps in prevention access that concentrate the epidemic among adolescent girls and young women in this part of the world.
Outside of Africa, prevalence drops significantly. Most countries in Western Europe, East Asia, and the Americas have adult rates well below 0.5%, though concentrated epidemics exist within specific communities in nearly every country.
HIV Prevalence in the United States
In the United States, an estimated 1.2 million people aged 13 and older were living with HIV at the end of 2022, the most recent year with reliable data. That works out to roughly 0.36% of the population, about half the global average. Around 13% of those people don’t know they have it.
The U.S. epidemic is not evenly distributed. It concentrates heavily in the South, in urban areas, and among Black and Latino men who have sex with men. These disparities mean that some communities experience HIV at rates comparable to the hardest-hit countries globally, while most Americans have very low personal risk.
Treatment Has Reshaped the Numbers
One of the most important things to understand about current HIV statistics is how dramatically treatment has changed what it means to live with the virus. At the end of 2024, 77% of all people living with HIV worldwide were on antiretroviral therapy. For those on effective treatment, the virus is suppressed to undetectable levels, which means they cannot transmit it sexually and can expect a near-normal lifespan.
This is why the total number of people living with HIV keeps climbing even as new infections fall. In the early years of the epidemic, an HIV diagnosis meant death within a decade for most people. Now, someone diagnosed at 20 and started on treatment promptly can expect to live into their 70s. The 40.8 million figure includes millions of people who were infected years or even decades ago and remain healthy on medication.
Why Millions Still Don’t Know Their Status
The 5.3 million people living with undiagnosed HIV represent one of the biggest remaining challenges. These individuals aren’t receiving treatment, which means the virus is actively damaging their immune systems and they can unknowingly pass it to others. The gap is largest in regions with limited healthcare infrastructure, but it exists everywhere. Even in the United States, roughly 160,000 people are estimated to be unaware of their infection.
Most major health organizations recommend that every adult get tested for HIV at least once in their lifetime, with more frequent testing for anyone with ongoing risk factors. Modern HIV tests can detect infection within a few weeks of exposure, and early diagnosis makes a significant difference in long-term health outcomes.