Facts and Figures

Young people are most at risk of getting HIV and AIDS. Some figures:

• Of the 7,400 people newly infected with HIV every day, more than half are under 25 years old.
• About 1,200 of those who become infected on a daily basis are under the age of 15.
• Every twelve seconds a new infection takes place.
• 6,800 people die every day of AIDS related causes.
• Thousands of children lose their parents to AIDS.
• Only a small proportion of those in need of AIDS inhibitors actually get them.
• 25 million people have already died of AIDS.
According to the United Nations, this figure will be 280 million in 2050 if we do not act now.
• In 2007 2.1 million people died of an AIDS-related illness.
• 2.5 million new infections in 2006 with 1.7 million of these in sub-Saharan Africa.
• More than two thirds of people living with HIV live in countries of the Global South.
AIDS affects mostly young people.
Most of them do not grow older than 35 years of age.
But there also is some good news!
• The number of people living with HIV and AIDS is decreasing in some countries. In other countries the number of people has stabilised.

Information on the figures: Each year UNAIDS, The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, releases new country and regional estimates on HIV/AIDS figures.

These figures are published once a year in the UNAIDS/WHO AIDS Epidemic Update Report.