Approximately 40.8 million people worldwide were living with HIV in 2024, with 1.3 million new infections and 630,000 AIDS-related deaths that year. While those numbers remain staggering, they reflect decades of progress: AIDS-related deaths have dropped 54% since 2010, when 1.4 million people died annually from the disease. Here’s a closer look at where the epidemic stands today.
The Global Picture in 2024
The 40.8 million people currently living with HIV represent the cumulative effect of an epidemic that peaked in new infections years ago but continues to grow in total numbers because treatment now keeps people alive far longer. New infections have fallen steadily, but 1.3 million people acquiring HIV in a single year signals that prevention still has major gaps. The 630,000 annual deaths, while dramatically lower than a decade ago, remain concentrated in regions with the least access to treatment.
Where HIV Hits Hardest
Sub-Saharan Africa carries the heaviest burden by far. An estimated 26 million people in the WHO African Region were living with HIV in 2023, roughly two-thirds of the global total. The region also saw about 640,000 new infections that year. Despite this outsized share, Africa has made significant strides in treatment: 82% of people living with HIV in the region were receiving antiretroviral therapy, and 76% had achieved viral suppression, meaning the virus was effectively controlled in their blood.
The Americas and South-East Asia each account for about 4 million people living with HIV. The Americas had higher treatment coverage at 72%, while South-East Asia lagged at 66%. Both regions saw substantially fewer new infections (160,000 and 120,000 respectively), but gaps in testing and treatment access remain, particularly in South-East Asia where only 78% of people living with HIV knew their status.
Progress Toward the 95-95-95 Targets
The global community set an ambitious goal: by 2025, 95% of people with HIV should know their status, 95% of those diagnosed should be on treatment, and 95% of those on treatment should have the virus suppressed to undetectable levels. The current global scorecard reads 86-89-93. That means 86% of all people living with HIV know they have it, 89% of those who know are on treatment, and 93% of those on treatment have achieved viral suppression.
Women aged 15 and older are closest to hitting the targets at 91-91-95. Men in the same age group trail at 83-86-94, largely because men are less likely to get tested and less likely to start or stay on treatment. The most alarming gap is among children under 14, where the numbers fall to just 66-86-84. Children are being diagnosed later, treated at lower rates, and achieving viral suppression far less often than adults.
Children Are Falling Behind
Pediatric HIV remains one of the epidemic’s most stubborn problems. As of 2021, only 52% of children living with HIV were receiving antiretroviral therapy, compared to 76% of adults. That gap has persisted even as both groups improved: from 2010 to 2020, pediatric treatment coverage tripled from 16% to 54%, while adult coverage nearly tripled from 26% to 74%. Pediatric AIDS-related deaths dropped from 240,000 to 99,000 over the same period, a meaningful decline but one that still leaves nearly 100,000 children dying annually from a treatable condition.
Prevention of mother-to-child transmission has been one of the epidemic’s success stories. In 2019, 85% of pregnant women living with HIV globally had access to antiretroviral therapy to prevent passing the virus to their babies. Without treatment, transmission rates during pregnancy, labor, and breastfeeding can reach 15 to 45%. With proper treatment, that risk drops below 5% and in many cases below 1%.
Prevention Tools Are Expanding
Pre-exposure prophylaxis, commonly known as PrEP, has become a cornerstone of HIV prevention. In 2023, more than 3.5 million people received PrEP at least once. Adoption has been rapid: 152 of 162 reporting countries (94%) have incorporated PrEP into their national guidelines. Newer options are also emerging. Twelve countries have adopted policies for a long-acting injectable form of PrEP given every two months, and 10 countries have approved a vaginal ring that releases preventive medication over the course of a month.
HIV self-testing has also scaled up dramatically. A total of 107 countries now have national policies supporting self-testing, with 71 countries implementing it routinely. That represents a five-fold increase in routine implementation compared to 2017. Self-testing removes some of the biggest barriers to diagnosis, including stigma, clinic wait times, and lack of privacy, and helps close the gap on that first “95” target of getting people diagnosed.
The 54% Drop in Deaths
The single most telling number in the global HIV response may be the 54% decline in AIDS-related deaths since 2010. That year, 1.4 million people died. By 2024, the figure had fallen to 630,000. The driver is straightforward: antiretroviral therapy works. When someone with HIV takes daily medication and achieves viral suppression, their immune system recovers, opportunistic infections become rare, and life expectancy approaches that of the general population.
The remaining deaths are concentrated among people who don’t know their status, who know but aren’t on treatment, or who started treatment too late after their immune system was already severely damaged. In many cases, these are people in the hardest-to-reach populations or in countries with limited healthcare infrastructure. Closing the testing and treatment gaps reflected in the 86-89-93 numbers would prevent the vast majority of these deaths.