Uniting the world against AIDS

Facts and figures

Worldwide, 17.3 million women aged 15 years and older are living with HIV.
76% of all HIV positive women live in sub-Saharan Africa, where women comprise 59% of adults living with HIV.
74% young people aged 15–24 years living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are female.
In Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, an increasing proportion of people living with HIV are women and girls.
Women currently represent 30% of adults living with HIV in Asia. Figures are higher in some countries in the region, reaching 39% in Thailand and 46% in Cambodia.
In Ukraine, which has one of the fastest growing epidemics in Europe, women now make up close to half (46%) of adults living with HIV.
In the Caribbean, 51% of adults living with HIV are female, while in the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago, figures are 59% and 56% respectively.
AIDS is the leading cause of death for African-American women aged 25–34 years in the United States of America.

(Updated May 2006)