Treatment now lets people living with HIV live long, healthy lives and stops onward transmission, yet 1.2 million people acquired HIV in 2025, the 2025 global targets were missed and cuts in international funding are disrupting services.
Updated October 13, 2026. Written from the sources listed below, not independently peer-reviewed.
Out of every 100 people living with HIV, how many were receiving antiretroviral treatment at the end of 2025?
41.0 million
People living with HIV
Estimate range 35.3–47.5 million. 53% are women and girls, and about 5.0 million people did not know they had HIV.
Data year 2025. Source: UNAIDS, 2026
1.2 million
New HIV infections
Down from 2.1 million in 2010 and from a peak of 3.5 million in 1994.
Data year 2025. Source: UNAIDS, 2026
570,000
AIDS-related deaths
Down from 1.3 million in 2010 and a peak of 2.1 million in 2004, while the number of people on treatment rose to 32.1 million.
Data year 2025. Source: UNAIDS, 2026
Unit: million new infections
Modelled UNAIDS estimates from the 2026 round; only the years in the report's summary table are plotted. Each value has a wide uncertainty range (950,000 to 1.7 million for 2025), and past years are re-estimated in every round.
SDG target 3.3 calls for ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030, and the 2026 Political Declaration commits to a 90% cut in new infections and AIDS-related deaths by 2030 compared with 2010. UNAIDS reports that the world missed its 2025 targets: in 2025 alone there were 1 million more new infections and 400,000 more AIDS-related deaths than if the response had been on track. Seven countries have cut new infections by at least 78% since 2010 and 11 had reached the 95–95–95 targets by 2025, but 21 countries still have rising numbers of new infections.
In sub-Saharan Africa, about 160,000 adolescent girls and young women aged 15–24 acquired HIV in 2025, around 3,000 a week. Their rate of new infections is three to four times that of young men in the region.
Source: UNAIDS, 2026Compared with all adults aged 15–49, the risk of acquiring HIV is 34 times higher for people who inject drugs, 18 times higher for gay men and other men who have sex with men, and 17 times higher for sex workers and for transgender women.
Source: UNAIDS, 2026Only 55% of children aged 0–14 living with HIV were receiving treatment in 2025, compared with 79% of adults, and 93,000 children newly acquired HIV that year.
Source: UNAIDS, 2026Men are less likely to be diagnosed and treated: 74% of men aged 15 and over living with HIV were on treatment in 2025, against 84% of women.
Source: UNAIDS, 2026Each country is shaded by its latest available value, so you can see where the gap is widest. Hover or tap a country, search for one, or open the full table.
Loading country values…
Modelled UNAIDS estimates of the share of people aged 15–49 living with HIV, latest year available per country (2024 for almost all, 2022–2023 for a few; years differ). Values are rounded to one decimal, so 0.1% is the lowest value shown; high values also reflect people living longer on treatment, and there is no estimate for some countries, including China, Russia and the United States.
Source: UNAIDS, via World Bank Open Data. Latest year available per country; years differ.
Values load from World Bank Open Data. Simplified Natural Earth borders; they imply no position on disputed territories.
Instead of one “percent solved” score, DO GOOD rates three separate dimensions. A problem can have mature solutions that still reach too few people. These ratings are an editorial reading of the sources on this page, not a measured index.
Has the situation improved in the real world?
ModerateNew infections fell from 2.1 million in 2010 to 1.2 million in 2025, and AIDS-related deaths from 1.3 million to 570,000, mainly because far more people are on treatment. But the 2025 targets were missed and 21 countries still have rising numbers of new infections.
How mature and validated are the available solutions?
HighAntiretroviral therapy is highly effective, and when it suppresses the virus it also prevents sexual transmission. WHO recommends several prevention options, including a twice-yearly injection. There is still no cure or effective vaccine, so people need to stay on treatment for life.
How widely are effective solutions actually used?
ModerateIn 2025, 78% of people living with HIV were on treatment and 74% had a suppressed viral load. Coverage was only 55% among children, and about 5.0 million people did not know they were living with HIV.
UNAIDS estimates draw on data from most countries but carry wide uncertainty ranges, for example 35.3–47.5 million people living with HIV in 2025. UNAIDS notes that the 2025 funding shifts exposed how fragile and fragmented many national HIV data systems are.
Infections and deaths kept falling in 2025, domestic funding rose by 4% and the price of injectable lenacapavir for lower-income countries is set to fall to US$40 a year from 2027. At the same time international funding dropped by 18%, and the number of people receiving PrEP fell by more than half in Cameroon, Nigeria and Zambia.
HIV is a virus that weakens the immune system. It passes from person to person through certain body fluids, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk, and from mother to child during pregnancy and birth, but not through everyday contact such as hugging, kissing or sharing food. Without treatment it can progress to AIDS, the most advanced stage of infection. There is no cure, but antiretroviral therapy stops the virus from multiplying and allows people to live full and healthy lives, and people whose virus can no longer be detected do not pass it on to sexual partners. WHO estimates that HIV has claimed 44.2 million lives since the start of the epidemic.
About 64% of people living with HIV live in the WHO African Region, and in sub-Saharan Africa women and girls account for six in ten new infections. Elsewhere, about two thirds of new infections occur among key populations, such as gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, people who inject drugs and transgender people, and their sexual partners. Stigma, discrimination and punitive laws can keep them away from services. While new infections have fallen sharply in eastern and southern Africa since 2010, they have risen by 78% in the Middle East and North Africa, 25% in Latin America and 17% in eastern Europe and central Asia, and they are still rising in 21 countries. In 2025 international funding for HIV fell by 18%, the steepest drop in almost two decades, disrupting prevention, testing and community services in a number of countries.
Most global HIV figures are modelled estimates produced by UNAIDS with countries each year. The main concepts and measures are:
HIV, AIDS and advanced HIV disease
HIV is the virus; AIDS describes the most advanced stage of infection. WHO defines advanced HIV disease in adults and adolescents as a CD4 cell count below 200 cells/mm³ or a severe (stage 3 or 4) illness, and counts all children under five living with HIV as having advanced disease.
Modelled estimates with ranges
Numbers of people living with HIV, new infections and AIDS-related deaths are estimated from national programme and survey data. Each comes with an uncertainty range, and earlier years are re-estimated every round, so figures from different editions should not be compared directly.
The 95–95–95 targets
These track a chain of care: 95% of people living with HIV should know their status, 95% of those diagnosed should be on treatment, and 95% of those on treatment should have a suppressed viral load. The 2026 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS reaffirmed them for 2030.
New infections
The number of people who acquire HIV in a year is the main measure of whether the epidemic is shrinking. For the Sustainable Development Goals it is expressed per 1,000 people without HIV, and the 2030 commitment is a 90% reduction compared with 2010.
What works
Antiretroviral drugs stop the virus from multiplying, let the immune system recover and allow people living with HIV to live long, healthy lives. People whose virus is suppressed to undetectable levels do not transmit HIV to sexual partners. The number of people on treatment rose from 7.6 million in 2010 to 32.1 million at the end of 2025.
Limits
Treatment does not cure HIV, so people need an uninterrupted supply of medicines and ongoing care for life. Coverage in 2025 was 78% overall but only 74% among men and 55% among children. Many people learn their status only at a late stage, and WHO notes that advanced HIV disease remains a persistent problem.
What works
Testing is the entry point to both treatment and prevention. Rapid tests can be used in clinics and communities, and self-tests let people test privately, with a positive result then confirmed by a trained health or community worker. In 2025, 88% of people living with HIV knew their status.
Limits
About 5.0 million people living with HIV did not know it in 2025. Men are less often diagnosed than women (86% against 91% knowing their status), and children are reached least (65%).
What works
People who do not have HIV can use antiretroviral medicines to prevent infection. WHO recommends oral tenofovir-based pills, the dapivirine vaginal ring, long-acting injectable cabotegravir and twice-yearly injectable lenacapavir, giving people options that fit their lives.
Limits
Daily pills are hard for many people to take consistently, and stigma and access gaps limit uptake. PrEP programmes depend heavily on donor funding: between 2024 and 2025 the number of people receiving PrEP fell by more than half in Cameroon, Nigeria and Zambia.
What works
Testing pregnant women and treating those living with HIV protects their own health and prevents most transmission to the baby during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding. Coverage rose from 51% in 2010 to 87% in 2025, and new infections among children fell by 69% over the same period.
Limits
Service gaps still meant that 93,000 children acquired HIV in 2025, 84% of them in sub-Saharan Africa, and UNAIDS reports that the decline in new vertical infections has slowed in the past few years.
What works
Male and female condoms, voluntary medical male circumcision and harm reduction services for people who inject drugs each lower the risk of HIV and form part of WHO's recommended prevention package.
Limits
These programmes are often donor-funded and easily cut: funding for condom programming fell by 93% in one major bilateral donor programme between 2024 and 2025. Possession of small amounts of drugs is a crime in 152 countries, which makes harm reduction harder to deliver.
Promising, but not proven at scale. The stage shows how far each approach has come; it is not a recommendation.
Lenacapavir is an antiretroviral injected every six months to prevent HIV; in trials it prevented almost all infections among participants. After US regulatory approval, WHO recommended it in July 2025 and prequalified the first products in October 2025. By the end of June 2026 more than 51,000 people in nine sub-Saharan African countries had received it, and partners have brought the price down to US$40 per person per year for lower-income countries from 2027. Prices for middle-income countries remain unclear, and scale-up depends on funding and on new delivery systems.
For people whose virus is already suppressed on pills, WHO now recommends switching to long-acting injections of cabotegravir and rilpivirine as an option, provided they do not have active hepatitis B. Injections can help people who struggle with daily pills or with keeping medicines private, but they require regular clinic visits and a reliable supply.
Pills taken once a month are being developed as an easier alternative to daily oral PrEP. UNAIDS lists monthly pill-based regimens among the new prevention options in the pipeline, and the leading candidate, MK-8527, has been assessed for safety in a phase 2 study in adults at low risk of HIV. It has not yet been shown to prevent HIV.
No vaccine has been shown to protect against HIV, and WHO describes one as still elusive. One approach, germline targeting, uses a sequence of shots to steer rare immune cells towards producing broadly neutralising antibodies that can block many HIV variants. In two small phase 1 trials reported in 2025, in North America and in Rwanda and South Africa, mRNA-based priming shots triggered the intended early response in most participants (94% in the African trial), but some participants developed skin reactions and many further steps are needed before a vaccine could be tested for protection.
Implementation gap
International funding for HIV fell by US$1.6 billion (18%) in 2025, the largest drop in almost two decades, mostly because of reduced US funding. Total resources of US$17.6 billion were well below the US$21.9 billion a year needed by 2030, and the United States still provides 74% of donor government financing for HIV.
Implementation gap
Community-led organisations deliver much HIV prevention and support. In a 2026 survey of 79 such organisations in 47 countries, PrEP delivery and support for people living with HIV had both fallen by 50%, services for sex workers by 82% and services for survivors of gender-based violence by 72%. Some programmes have closed for good.
Coordination gap
Sex work is criminalised in 168 countries, possession of small amounts of drugs in 152 and same-sex sexual activity in 66, laws that can deter people from seeking services. In surveys from 34 countries between 2021 and 2024, a weighted average of 39% of adults aged 15–49 held discriminatory attitudes towards people living with HIV.
Coordination gap
Domestic sources provided 59% of HIV funding in 2025, and by April 2026, 28 countries had signed health agreements with the United States that tie continued support to co-financing. Only about a quarter of 152 countries with data have integrated HIV into broader health strategies, so services risk falling through the gaps as donor programmes wind down.
Knowledge gap
UNAIDS reports that the 2025 funding shifts exposed how vulnerable fragmented HIV data systems are in several countries. Weaker data make it harder to see who is being missed and where infections are rising.
Technology gap
Without a cure or vaccine, people need treatment for life and prevention must be repeated. Long-acting products could help, but the US$40 annual price for lenacapavir applies only to lower-income countries, and UNAIDS notes a lack of clarity on prices for middle- and upper-income countries.
Unresolved questions, not vetted breakthroughs. Answering any of them would change what is possible.
How can twice-yearly injections be delivered affordably to adolescent girls, young women and key populations, and how many people keep coming back for repeat injections outside trials?
With weaker data systems, how many additional infections and deaths will the 2025 service disruptions cause, and which services matter most to restore first?
Can the hidden reservoirs of virus that survive treatment be cleared or kept under control so that people can safely stop taking medicines?
Can a vaccine train the immune system to produce antibodies that block the many variants of HIV, and give protection that lasts?
If you could have been exposed to HIV, take a test; self-tests are available in many places. Ask a health worker about condoms and PrEP, and after a possible exposure seek advice straight away about post-exposure prophylaxis.
Use person-first language such as "people living with HIV" and correct common myths: HIV is not passed on through everyday contact, and people on effective treatment do not transmit it to sexual partners.
Groups run by and for people living with HIV and key populations deliver much prevention and support but have lost funding. Look for organisations that publish their accounts and results before you give.
Much of the HIV response in low- and middle-income countries still depends on international aid. Letting elected representatives know that you support global health funding and non-discriminatory laws is one of the few ways individuals can influence it.
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UNAIDS (27 July 2026), published 2026
UNAIDS's 2026 global update, with estimates for 2025. Source of the 2010–2025 summary table (new infections, deaths, people living with HIV, coverage of treatment and vertical transmission prevention), the missed 2025 targets, regional changes in new infections since 2010, countries with rising or sharply falling infections, adolescent girls and young women, key populations, the 2025 funding fall and its effects on PrEP, condoms and community-led services, punitive laws and stigma, lenacapavir uptake and price, monthly PrEP pills in development, the 2026 Political Declaration targets, TB deaths among people living with HIV and the link between partner violence and viral suppression.
UNAIDS (27 July 2026), published 2026
Headline 2025 estimates with uncertainty ranges: people living with HIV, new infections and deaths compared with 2010 and the historic peaks, people on treatment, the 95–95–95 cascade by sex and age, coverage among children, men and women, relative risk for key populations and resources available.
World Health Organization (27 July 2026), published 2026
WHO's overview of transmission, treatment and prevention. Source of the 44.2 million lives lost since the start of the epidemic, the 64% of people living with HIV in the WHO African Region, the advanced HIV disease definition, the statement that people with undetectable virus do not transmit HIV sexually, self-testing, late diagnosis and the list of WHO-recommended PrEP methods.
World Health Organization (news release, 14 July 2025), published 2025
Announcement of WHO's guideline recommending twice-yearly injectable lenacapavir as an additional PrEP option, issued alongside US FDA approval, with simplified testing for long-acting PrEP, a recommendation on long-acting cabotegravir and rilpivirine for treatment, integration of mental health care into HIV services and WHO's statement that an HIV vaccine remains elusive.
World Health Organization, Prequalification of Medical Products (6 October 2025), published 2025
Confirms WHO prequalification of the first lenacapavir products for PrEP in adults and adolescents weighing at least 35 kg, through an abridged pathway based on a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency.
Scripps Research (news release, 15 May 2025), published 2025
Research institution's summary of the IAVI G002 and G003 phase 1 trials of germline-targeting mRNA vaccines in North America, Rwanda and South Africa, published in Science (doi:10.1126/science.adr8382). Source of the 94% response rate in the African trial, the skin reactions observed and the statement that the trials were not designed to produce broadly neutralising antibodies.