Our World
in Data
Oxford Martin School logoUniversity of Oxford logoGlobal Change Data Lab logo
Data

AIDS-related deaths

central estimate
See all data and research on:
HIV/AIDS

What you should know about this indicator

  • AIDS-related deaths are estimated using multiple methods, including vital registration systems, surveys with verbal autopsies, and mathematical modeling tools like Spectrum.
  • Mathematical models integrate various data sources, such as demographic data, HIV prevalence, antiretroviral therapy coverage, and survival assumptions, sometimes incorporating adjustments for misreporting.

The number of people dying from AIDS-related causes can be obtained using a variety of measures, including through a vital registration system adjusted for misreporting, as part of a facility- or population-based survey that may include verbal autopsy and through mathematical modelling using such tools as Spectrum. Modelling tools typically use demographic data, HIV prevalence from survey and surveillance, the number of people receiving antiretroviral therapy, HIV incidence and assumptions around survival patterns to estimate the number of people dying. In some instances, data from vital reporting systems and estimates of underreporting and misclassification also may be incorporated into these models to derive estimates of the number of AIDS-related deaths.

The source of the estimate is requested. Countries providing the number of people dying from AIDS-related causes derived from a source other than Spectrum should provide any accompanying estimates of uncertainty around this number and upload an electronic copy of the report describing how the number was calculated.

Countries should preferably report a modelled estimate rather than one derived from their vital registration system unless this system has been recently evaluated as one of high quality. Users can now opt to use their Spectrum estimate or enter nationally representative population-level data. If Spectrum estimates are chosen, the values will be pulled directly from the software once the national file is finalized.

AIDS-related deaths
central estimate
Total number of people dying from AIDS-related causes, central estimate.
Source
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
January 22, 2025
Date range
1990–2023
Unit
deaths

Related research and writing

Thumbnail image for article on historical pandemics

What were the death tolls from pandemics in history?

Saloni Dattani

Why randomized controlled trials matter and the procedures that strengthen them

Saloni Dattani

Antiretroviral therapy has saved millions of lives from AIDS and could save more

Bernadeta Dadonaite

Explore charts that include this data

HIV/AIDS deaths averted by antiretroviral therapy

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

UNAIDS leads the world's most extensive data collection on HIV epidemiology, programme coverage and finance and publishes the most authoritative and up-to-date information on the HIV epidemic.

In some cases there is no data for some country and year. This can be a result of very small epidemics among women in the reproductive age which makes estimation of the mother to child transmission very unstable. Another reason for missing data is that relevant authorities may have asked UNAIDS not to share their estimates.

This UNAIDS 2024 report brings together new data and case studies which demonstrate that the decisions and policy choices taken by world leaders this year will decide the fate of millions of lives and whether the world's deadliest pandemic is overcome.

Retrieved on
January 22, 2025
Retrieved from
https://aidsinfo.unaids.org/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
The urgency of now: AIDS at a crossroads. Geneva: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; 2024. Full report: https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/2024-unaids-global-aids-update_en.pdf

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: AIDS-related deaths”, part of the following publication: Max Roser and Hannah Ritchie (2023) - “HIV / AIDS”. Data adapted from Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-from-aids-un [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “AIDS-related deaths – central estimate” [dataset]. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, “Global AIDS Update” [original data]. Retrieved March 7, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-from-aids-un