HIV Statistics – Global and Regional Trends

Of the 39.0 million (confidence limits: 33.0 to 45.7 million) people living with HIV globally in 2022, 2.58 million (1.91 to 3.47 million) were older children from 0 to 19 years old. Every day in 2022, around 740 children were infected with HIV and around 274 children died from AIDS-related causes, mainly due to insufficient access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services.

By 2022, an estimated 13.9 million (10.6 to 18.4 million) children under the age of 18 had lost one or both parents to AIDS-related reasons. Millions more have been affected by the outbreak, due to an increased risk of poverty, homelessness, school dropouts, discrimination and loss of opportunities, as well as COVID-19. These difficulties include prolonged illness and death. Of the 624,000 (466,000 to 890,000) people who died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2022, 990,000 (67,000 to 140,000) (or about 16%) were children under the age of 20.

Learn more

Global trends

In 2022, approximately 130,000 (90,000–210,000) children aged 0–9 years were newly infected with HIV, bringing the total number of children aged 0–9 years living with HIV to 930,000 (730,000 to 1.28 million). Nearly 85 percent of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa. A bright spot on the global horizon is the rapid decline of about 58 percent in new HIV infections among children aged 0 to 9 years since 2010, thanks to increased efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. However, the number of new HIV infections among adolescents (ages 10 to 19) has declined at a slower rate, about 47 percent.

An estimated 100,000 (67,000-146,000) children and adolescents died from AIDS-related causes in 2022. About 73 percent of these preventable deaths occurred among children under 10 years old. The annual number of AIDS-related deaths among children has declined by about 80 percent since its peak in 2002, while the annual number of AIDS-related deaths among 10- to 19-year-olds has declined by only 27 percent. since 2002.

Geographic disparity

Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly southern Africa, remains the region hardest hit by the epidemic. In 2022, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for approximately 66 percent of people of all ages living with HIV and 85 percent of children and adolescents living with HIV globally. The spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa is primarily through heterosexual relationships, both in the context of transactional and commercial sex and in longer-term relationships, including marriage. Current data in southern Africa has identified sexual relations between adolescent or young women and older men as a common route of HIV transmission. Additionally, infants born to mothers living with HIV are at risk of becoming infected if their mothers do not receive effective treatment or care.

In most other parts of the world, HIV disproportionately affects people who inject drugs, men who have sex with men, and sex workers. However, the epidemic is evolving and modes of transmission are changing around the world. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, HIV epidemics, once characterized largely by transmission among people who inject drugs, are now increasingly characterized by significant sexual transmission. In parts of Asia, HIV is increasingly being transmitted among heterosexual couples. Across Asia, HIV epidemics have long focused on people who inject drugs, sex workers and their clients, and men who have sex with men. Today, HIV infections are gradually spreading among low-risk populations through transmission to the sexual partners of those most at risk. For more information about UNICEF programs and policies, visit Children & AIDS Community of Practice.

Hide